ABSTRACT

A seminal text in the field, this new edition of The Routledge Handbook of Health Communication provides students and scholars with a comprehensive survey of the subject’s key research foundations and trends, authored by the discipline’s leading scholars.

 

The third edition has been completely updated and reorganized to guide both new researchers and experienced scholars through the most critical and contemporary topics in health communication today. There are eight major sections covering a range of issues, including interpersonal and family health communication; patient-provider communication; healthcare provider and organizational health communication; mediated health communication; campaigns, interventions, and technology applications; and broad issues such as health literacy, health equity, and intercultural communication. Attention also is devoted to foundational issues in health communication, such as theory and method; multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary communication research; research translation, implementation, and dissemination; and narrative health communication. There is new attention to policy and NGOs, the environment, public health crises, global health, mental health and mental illness, and marginalized populations such as Black, Latinx (a/o), Native/First People, and LGBTQ+ individuals, as well as the multiple challenges health communication researchers face in conducting research.

 

The handbook will continue to serve as an invaluable resource for students, researchers, scholars, policymakers, and healthcare professionals doing work in health communication.

Section 1: Introduction  1. The Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary, and Transdisciplinary Nature of Health Communication Scholarship  2. Theoretical and Methodological Matters in Health Communication: Navigating Current and Future Directions  3. Research Translation, Dissemination, and Implementation   4. Narrative Features, Forms, and Functions: Telling Stories to Foster Well-Being, Humanize Healthcare, and Catalyze Change  Section 2: Interpersonal and Family Health Communication  5. Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Suicide  6. Stigma, Communication, and Health  7. Health and Relational Outcomes for Informal Caregivers and Care-Recipients  8. Family Health Communication  9. Palliative Care and End-of-Life Communication  10. Supportive Communication and Health  11. Everyday Interpersonal Communication about Health and Illness  Section 3: Patient-Provider Communication  12. Mutual Persuasion as Patient-Centered Communication  13. Difficult Conversations between Healthcare Providers and Patients  14. Improving Clinician and Patient Communication Skills  15. Patient-Provider Communication and Health Outcomes  Section 4: Healthcare Provider and Organizational Health Communication  16. The Multiple Voices of Communication in Healthcare  17. Interprofessional Communication: Teams, Handoffs, and Multiteam Systems  18. Stress and Burnout: A Review of Research in Health Organizations  Section 5. Mediated Communication  19. Health and Media: The Impact of News and Entertainment  20. Consumer Advertising and Health Communication  21. Social Media and Health  22. Health Misinformation  Section 6: Campaigns, Interventions, and Technology Applications  23. Public Health Communication Campaigns  24. Community-Based Health Interventions  25. Technology-based Interventions for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Treatment  26. The Role of Technology in Health Communication: Trends and Trajectories  Section 7: Over-arching Issues in Health Communication  27. Health Information Seeking  28. Inroads into Healthy Decision Making: The Role of Health Literacy in Health Communication  29. Communication, Health, and Equity: Structural Influences  30. Intercultural Health Communication: Rethinking Culture in Health Communication  31. Global Health Communication  32. Public Health Crises  33. Communicating about the Environment and Health  Section 8: Challenges and Challenging Contexts in Health Communication Research and Practice  34. Ethical Issues in Health Communication in Clinical and Digital Setting and in Health Communication Campaigns  35. Rethinking Imbalances of Power through Health Communication: Challenges for Scholars, Practitioners, and Activists  36. Conversation Analysis and Health Communication  37. Advancing Health Communication Research: Issues and Controversies in Research Design and Data Analysis  38. Health Communication Research and Practice at the Level of Government, Foundations, Public Policy, and NGOs  39. Challenges in Conducting Health Communication Research