Health Communication

Health communication studies how communication shapes health behaviour, care, and public health.

Scope

It covers health campaigns and promotion, provider-patient communication, risk communication, and the diffusion of health innovations.

Core questions

• How can communication improve health behaviour?
• How do patients and providers communicate?
• How should health risks be communicated?
• How do health innovations spread?

Key concepts

• Health campaigns
• Diffusion of innovations
• Health Belief Model
• Risk communication
• Provider-patient communication
• Health literacy

Key theories

Diffusion of innovations

Rogers explained how new ideas and practices, including health innovations, spread through populations.

Health behaviour models

The Health Belief Model linked beliefs about risk and benefit to health behaviour.

History

Health communication drew on diffusion theory (Rogers) and health-behaviour models (Health Belief Model) to design campaigns and improve care, expanding into digital health and risk communication.

Debates

Information versus behaviour change

Whether providing health information is sufficient or behaviour change requires more.

Key figures

• Everett Rogers
• Marshall Becker

Seminal works

• rogers-1962
• becker-1974

Frequently asked questions

What is the diffusion of innovations?

Rogers's theory of how new ideas and practices spread through a population over time via communication.