This encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of the exciting field or Health Communications, including such topics as theories and research traditions; evaluation and assessment; cultural complexities; high risk and special populations; message design and campaigns; provider/patient interaction issues; media issues; and more.

Table of Contents

• Reader’s Guide
• About the Editor
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• Chronology
• A
• Abuse: Child and Spousal
• Acculturation
• Action Tendency Emotions
• Acupuncture
• Acute Versus Preventive Care
• Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention
• Adult Children of Alcoholics
• Advance Directives
• Advanced Aging Communities
• Advertising: Dietary Supplements
• Advertising: Food
• Advertising: Over-the-Counter Drugs
• Advertising: Prescription Drugs
• Advertising, Governmental Regulation of
• Advertising Unhealthy Foods to Children
• Advocacy
• Affection Exchange Theory
• Affordable Care Act
• Ageism
• Agenda Setting
• Age-Related Hearing Loss
• Aging
• Alcohol and Health Decision Making
• Alternative and Complementary Medicine
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• American Medical Association
• Amputation
• Amputee Wannabes
• Anger Appeals
• Antisocial Behaviors: Bullying and Cyberbullying
• Anxiety
• Attribution Theory and Attribution Error
• Audiences, Reaching
• Awareness and Instruction Strategies
• Ayurveda, Yoga, and Meditation
• B
• Bad News, Communicating
• Bangladesh
• Bereavement
• Big Data
• Biological Citizenship
• Biomedical and Health Informatics
• Biopower and Biopolitics
• Biopreparedness and Biosecurity
• Bioterrorism
• Birth Control and Contraception
• Body Images and Portrayals
• Body Implants, Medical
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Breast Cancer
• Breastfeeding
• Bundled Interventions
• C
• Campaign Effects Versus Effectiveness
• Cancer: Risk Communication
• Cancer Survivorship
• Care Model and Productive Interaction
• Celebrity Cancer Announcements
• Celebrity Endorsements
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.
• Change Agency
• Change Approaches, Transtheoretical and Stages of
• Channels and Formats
• Childbirth
• Childhood Injury Prevention
• Children, Health Communication with
• China
• Chronic Diseases
• Circumcision, Male
• Climate Change
• Clinical Trial Participation
• Coding Health Interaction
• Collaborative Decision Making
• Collaborative Decision Making: Shared Mind
• Collaborative Decision Making, Uncertainty in
• Collective Efficacy
• Communication, Basic Concepts of
• Communication Accommodation Theory
• Communication Complex
• Communication for Behavioral Impact
• Communication Interventions
• Communication Networks
• Communication Privacy Management Theory
• Communication Skills Training: Patients
• Communication Skills Training and Assessment: Providers
• Communication Theory of Identity
• Community Initiatives, Comprehensive
• Community Mobilization
• Community Organizing as a Research Approach
• Community Participation
• Community Resilience
• Community-Based Participatory Research
• Compassion
• Computer Kiosks, Free-Standing
• Computer-Tailored Interventions
• Conflict and Negative Health Effects
• Conflict Management: Health Professionals
• Content Analysis
• Contested Illnesses
• Contraception
• Control Theory
• Conversation Analysis
• Coping
• Crisis Communication
• Critical Approaches
• Cross-Generational Health Communication
• Cultivation Theory
• Cultural Differences
• Cultural Sensitivity
• Cultural Variance Model
• Culture-Centered Approaches
• Customization as Tailoring 2.0
• Cyberchondria
• D
• Data Mining
• Death and Dying
• Decision Making
• Defensive Reactions: Health Messages
• Department of Health and Human Services, U.S.
• Dependent Variables Derived from Critical Health Outcomes
• Depression
• Developing Countries, Campaigns in
• Developmental Health
• Diabetes
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
• Difficult Patients
• Diffusion of Innovations Model
• Digital Divide
• Digital Media
• Digital Personal Health Records
• Disabilities and Family Relationships
• Disability
• Disaster Relief
• Disclaimers, Interpretation and Effects of
• Disclosure: Family Health History
• Disclosure: Medical Errors
• Disclosure: Providers and Patients
• Discourse and Health
• Disease Prevention
• Disenfranchised Populations
• Dissemination
• Distance Caregiving
• Doctor–Patient Communication
• Double ABC-X Model of Family Stress and Coping
• Drug and Alcohol Abuse Minimization
• Dual-Processing Models
• E
• Eating Disorders
• Ecological Perspectives
• Egypt
• E-Health: Defined
• Emergency Health Communication
• Emergency Preparedness and Response
• Emergency Rooms
• Emotion and Information Seeking
• Emotion Appraisals Regarding Risk
• Emotions and the Medical Care Process
• Encoded Exposure and Aided Versus Unaided Awareness
• Enhancement
• Entertainment–Education
• Entertainment–Education: European Approach
• Entertainment–Education: Hollywood and Public Relations Approach
• Entertainment–Education: Role of Involvement
• Environmental Health
• Environmental Health, Research in
• Ethic of Care
• Ethics: Campaigns
• Ethics: Health Communication Strategies
• Ethics: New Technologies
• Ethics: Overall
• Ethics: Provider–Patient Interaction
• Ethnic Diversity in Health Care Settings
• Ethnography
• Ethnomethodology
• Europe
• Evaluation: Mixed Methods
• Evaluation: Qualitative Methods
• Evaluation: Quantitative Methods
• Evaluation, Statistical Challenges in
• Everyday Health Communication
• Everyday Health Communication, Social Influence of
• Evidence: Role in Campaigns
• Exercise
• Explaining Illness
• Explaining Illness, Need for
• Expressive Writing and Health
• F
• Face and Politeness
• Familial Roles in Health Communication
• Families, Communication with
• Family: Relationship to Health
• Family Caregiving
• Family Communication and End of Life
• Family Meeting
• Family Planning
• Fatalism
• Fear Appeals and Extended Parallel Process Model
• Fertility
• Final Conversations
• Focus Groups
• Formative Evaluation
• Framing
• G
• Gambling Addiction
• Gaming
• Gender
• Generative Tensions in Health Communication Theory
• Genetically Modified Organisms, Media Coverage of
• Genetics
• Geographic Information Systems Technology
• Ghana
• Globalization Theory
• Grief and Loss
• Grounded Theory
• H
• Harm Reduction Theory
• Health Activism and Public Health
• Health Belief Model
• Health Blogging
• Health Campaigns
• Health Campaigns, Assessment of
• Health Care, Discrimination or Bias in
• Health Care Environment
• Health Care Teams
• Health Citizenship
• Health Communication, History of
• Health Communication, Unintended Effects of
• Health Communication Curricula
• Health Disparities: Clinical Interactions
• Health Disparities: Communal Level
• Health Disparities: Media
• Health Disparities: Overall
• Health Disparities, Personal Influences on
• Health Disparities, Relational Influences on
• Health Disparities, Solutions for
• Health Education
• Health Information Channels
• Health Information-Seeking Behavior, Psychosocial Determinants of
• Health Information-Seeking Behavior, Social Determinants of
• Health Journalism
• Health Literacy: Integrating into Health Care Systems
• Health Literacy, Consequences of
• Health Literacy, Improving
• Health Literacy, Measurement of
• Health Literacy, Model of
• Health Literacy, Online
• Health Literacy and Numeracy
• Health Locus of Control
• Health Policy
• Health Promotion
• Health Transition and Family Communication
• Healthy People Initiative
• Heart Health
• HIV Test Counseling
• HIV/AIDS: Condom Use and Meanings
• HIV/AIDS: Disclosure Dilemmas
• HIV/AIDS: Language, Metaphors, and Social Construction
• HIV/AIDS: Mother-to-Child Transmission
• HIV/AIDS: Overview
• HIV/AIDS: Social Determinants of Disparities
• HIV/AIDS Prevention
• HIV/AIDS Test, Meanings of
• HIV/AIDS Treatment
• Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture
• Holistic Medicine
• Hospice
• Hospital Governance Culture
• Human Papillomavirus
• Human Rights
• Humor
• I
• Identification
• Ideological Hegemony
• Illness Identity
• Immigrant Families
• Immigrant Populations
• Immunizations
• Incentive Appeals
• Inconsistent Nurturing as Control Theory
• India
• Indonesia
• Influential Source Messengers
• Influenza A Virus Subtype H1N1
• Information Nonseeking
• Information Seeking
• Information Sharing
• Informed Consent
• Inoculation Effects
• Institutional Processes and Competing Agendas
• Integrated Marketing Mix
• Integrative Medicine
• Interactional Context and Intervention
• Intercultural Health Communication
• Interdisciplinary Health Services Research
• Internet: Information Acquisition
• Internet Addiction
• Interpersonal Communication and Mass Media Health Campaigns
• Interpersonal Communication Skills
• Interpreters and Language
• Intervention Evaluation Methodology Technologies, New
• Interviewing in the Health Care Context
• Invisible Disabilities
• Iran
• Islamic Healing
• J
• Japan
• L
• Language and Negation Bias: Doctor–Patient Interaction
• Language Brokering
• LGBT Issues
• Lifespan, Communication Across the
• Listening in Health Care Interactions
• Logic Models and Program Evaluation
• Loose Versus Tight Coupling
• M
• Malaria and Mosquito Nets
• Malawi
• Malpractice Litigation
• Mammography
• Marginalized Populations
• Mass Media
• Measurement: Message Quality
• Measurement Problems
• Media: Quality of Health Information
• Media and Health, Critical Analysis of
• Media Complementarity Theory
• Media Content: Magazines
• Media Content: Newspapers
• Media Content: Other Print
• Media Content: Televised Entertainment
• Media Content: Televised News
• Media Content, Impact of
• Media Depictions: Disability
• Media Depictions: Medical Workers
• Media Depictions: Mental Illnesses
• Media Literacy
• Mediated Health Campaigns
• Medical Outcomes
• Medical Records, Electronic
• Medical Regimens, Adherence to
• Medicalization
• Medicine as Business, Evolution of
• Memorable Messages
• Mental Health
• Message Design
• Message Sensation Value
• Message Sidedness
• Message Tailoring
• Meta-Analysis
• Metaphor
• Metatheory
• Mexico
• Middle East
• Military Health
• Military Sexual Assault
• Mobile Health
• Modeling Development and Testing
• Moderating Variables and Audience Effects: Violence
• Mother–Daughter Dyad Communication
• Motivational Interviewing
• Multicultural Campaigns
• Multilevel Interventions
• Multilevel Modeling
• Music in Health Behavior: Change Campaigns and Interventions
• N
• Narrative Engagement Theory
• Narrative Medicine
• Narratives: Health Campaigns
• Narratives: Overall
• Narratives: Social Marketing
• Narratives and Barrier Reduction
• National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy
• National Cancer Institute
• National Institutes of Health
• National Library of Medicine
• National Medical Association
• Nature, Environment, and Sustainability
• Negotiated Morality Theory
• Nepal
• Neurorhetoric
• Newborn Care
• Nigeria
• Nonverbal Communication in Health Care Settings
• Numeracy
• Nursing
• Nursing Homes, Staff Communication in
• Nutrition and Diet
• O
• Obesity: Overview
• Obesity and Mass Media
• Olson’s Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems
• Online Focus Groups
• Online Health Information Credibility
• Online Health Information Exchange and Privacy
• Online Health Information Seeking
• Online Health Information Sharing
• Online Support Groups
• Online Support Groups, Advantages and Disadvantages of
• Open Dialogue Approach
• Opinion Leaders
• Optimistic Bias
• Oral Health and Dentistry
• Organ Donation
• Organizational and Public Policy Barriers
• Organization–Public Relations Theory
• Organizations and Health
• O-S-O-R Model
• Osteopathy
• Overtreatment and Overreliance on Diagnostic Testing
• P
• Palliative Care
• Pandemics
• Pathways to Change Tool
• Pathways to Health Outcomes
• Patient Activation
• Patient and Relationship-Centered Communication and Medicine
• Patient Education: Hospital Discharge and Readmission
• Patient Empowerment
• Patient Navigators and Family Advisors
• Patient Privacy
• Patient Safety
• Patients' Significant Others: Communication with Health Care Providers
• Pediatric Hospice Care
• Perceived Effectiveness
• Perceived Threat
• Personalized Medicine
• Persuasive Technologies for Health
• Pharmaceutical Industry: Public Scrutiny and Activism
• Pharmacists
• Phenomenology
• Philippines
• Photovoice
• Physical Activity and Weight
• Placebo Effects
• Politics and Political Complexities
• Pornography, Health Consequences of
• Postcolonial Studies of Health
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Pregnancy
• Premises of Health Communication
• Prenatal Health Promotion
• Prescribing Medications
• Priming in Health Campaign Messages
• Problematic Integration Theory
• Problem-Based Learning
• Program Strategies: Campaigns
• Prostate Cancer
• Psychological Reactance
• Psychometric Theory and Reliability/Validity of Measures
• Public Engagement: Science Policy
• Public Health and Academic Partnerships
• Public Health Communication
• Public Health Communication, Evolution of
• Public Health Intervention: Multicultural Communities
• Public Relations and Health Care Organizations
• Public Relations and Health Journalism
• Public Relations and Health Promotion
• Public Relations and Social Media
• Public Service Announcements
• Public Understanding: Research
• Public Understanding: Science
• PubMed
• Q
• Quality of Life as a Health Outcome
• R
• Readiness Assessments
• Realism
• Reconceptualized Health Belief Model
• Relational Dialectics Theory
• Relational Health Communication Competence Model
• Religion and Spirituality
• Reproductive Technologies, New
• Resilience
• Rhetoric: Death with Dignity
• Rhetoric: Flu Vaccine
• Rhetoric: Health and Medicine
• Risk Communication
• Risk Communication: Food Safety
• Risk Communication: Instructional Principles
• Risk Communication: Social Construction Perspective
• Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model
• Risk Perception Attitude Framework
• Risk Perceptions
• Risk Society
• Risk-Taking Behavior
• Role Stress: Overall
• Rural Health Communication
• Russia
• S
• Safer Sex
• Sampling
• Satisfaction
• School Health
• Science Communication
• Science Literacy
• Scientific Complexity, Communication of
• Secondary Data Analysis
• Segmentation: Health Campaigns
• Segmentation: Public Relations
• Self-Determination Theory
• Self-Efficacy
• Senegal
• Sensation-Seeking Targeting
• Setting Objectives: Health Communication and Intervention
• Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
• Sex Education
• Sex Workers
• Sexual Assault
• Sexual Health
• Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention
• Situational Theory and Communication Behaviors
• Skin Cancer and Sun Safety
• Skin Cancer and Tanning
• Slow-Motion Technological Disaster, Responses to
• Smoking
• Social Action, Types of
• Social Aggregates
• Social Capital
• Social Cognitive Theory
• Social Comparison Theory
• Social Construction: Disability
• Social Construction: Reality
• Social Determinants of Health
• Social Identity
• Social Judgment Theory
• Social Marketing
• Social Marketing: Community Change Perspective
• Social Media
• Social Networks: Overall
• Social Networks, Measurement of
• Social Networks and Message Delivery
• Social Norms
• Social Support: Relationship to Health
• Social Support, Types of
• Social Support and Cardiovascular Health
• Social Support and Support Groups
• Social Support Interventions
• Societal Risk Reduction Motivation Model
• Sociometric Social Networks
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Stigma Reduction
• Stigmatization
• Stigmatization: Courtesy Stigma
• Stigmatization: Labels, Marks, and Peril
• Stigmatization, Consequences of
• Stigmatization, Coping with
• Stress and Burnout: Emotional Labor
• Stress and Burnout: Home–Work Conflict
• Stress and Burnout: Overall
• Structural Violence and Health
• Structure-Centered Approach
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Suicide
• Support Providers and Persons with Disabilities, Decision Making between
• Supportive Listening
• Surrogate Decision Makers
• Systems Theory
• T
• Technology: Impact on Physician–Patient Dialogue
• Technology and Health Outcomes
• Teen Pregnancy
• Telemedicine
• Television
• Terminality
• Thailand
• Theoretical Frameworks, Communication Technology
• Theory of Motivated Information Management
• Theory of Normative Social Behavior
• Theory of Planned Behavior
• Theory of Reasoned Action
• Three Community and Five Cities Projects
• Tobacco
• Traditions of Health Communication Theory
• Trait Approaches
• Transitions, Health Effects, and Support
• Translational Research
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Tuberculosis
• Turkey
• Twitter and Public Health
• U
• Uganda
• Uncertainty Management Theory
• UNICEF
• United Kingdom
• United States
• University–Community Relationships
• Uses and Gratifications Theory
• V
• Vaccinations
• Virtual Reality Environments
• Visual Information
• W
• Warning Labels: Alcohol
• Warning Labels: Cigarettes
• Warning Labels: Overview
• Warning Labels: Prescription Drugs
• Weak Tie/Strong Tie Network Support
• Web-Based Delivery
• Weick’s Model of Organizing
• Women’s Health
• Work Site Safety
• Working Well
• World Health Organization
• Z
• Zimbabwe
• Glossary
• Resource Guide
• Appendix: Health Communication Posters
• Photo Credits