Health communication is the field that studies and applies communication strategies so that people can understand health information and use it to protect their health, spanning risk communication in emergencies, public health campaigns, media and social marketing, and provider-patient communication. Its practitioners focus on how health information is created, shared and understood by different audiences. The field sits next to health literacy, which concerns an audience's own capacity to find and use health information, and next to health promotion, which designs the wider programs communication supports.
Facts
Central QuestionHow can health information be created, delivered and framed so that its intended audience understands it and is able to act on it? 1 Key DebatePublic health agencies note that health information and messages are often overly complex, making them hard to understand and use. That leaves a live question for the field: how much of a communication failure to address by simplifying the message and the system that delivers it, and how much by building the audience's own health literacy skills. 1 Key DebateSourced to the subject's own accountThe COVID-19 pandemic gave the field a new name for an old problem: the World Health Organization defined an infodemic, on 2 February 2020, as an over-abundance of information, some accurate and some not, that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it, a term barely used before 2020 that appeared in over fourteen thousand published items between 2020 and 2021 alone. Health communicators still debate how far correcting false content on its own can go, since simply providing correct information often fails, because people bring cognitive preferences for old habits, forgetfulness and small inconveniences that a fact sheet alone does not resolve. 2 Connections
Associated With
Health literacy is the outcome measure most closely associated with the health communication field: how well health information is conveyed determines how well it is understood and acted on.
In Branch
Sources
1. ODPHP: Health Communication
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesHealth Communication overviewQuote, Health Communication overview
Health information and messages are often overly complex, making them hard to understand and use.
2. Wikipedia: Infodemic
WikipediaLead and Origins sectionsQuote, Lead and Origins sections
an over-abundance of information, some accurate and some not, that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it
CDC Foundation: What Is Public Health
CDC FoundationWhat Is Public Health pageQuote, What Is Public Health page
Health communication professionals focus on how health information is created, shared and understood
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