Main description:

The Routledge Handbook of Health Communication brings together the current body of scholarly work in health communication. With its expansive scope, it offers an introduction for those new to this area, summarizes work for those already learned in the area, and suggests avenues for future research on the relationships between communicative processes and health/health care delivery.

This second edition of the Handbook has been organized to reflect the goals of health communication: understanding to make informed decisions and to promote formal and informal systems of care linked to health and well-being. It emphasizes work in such areas as barriers to disclosure in family conversations and medical interactions, access to popular media and advertising, and individual searches online for information and support to guide decisions and behaviors with health consequences.

This edition also adds an overview of methods used in health communication and the unique challenges facing health communication researchers applying traditional methods to efforts to gain reliable and valid evidence about the role of communication for health. It introduces the promise of translational research being conducted by health communication researchers from multiple disciplines to form transdisciplinary theories and teams to increase the well-being of not only humans but the systems of care within their nations.

Arguably the most comprehensive scholarly resource available for study in this area, the Routledge Handbook of Health Communication serves an invaluable role and reference for students, researchers, and scholars doing work in health communication.

Contents:

Foreword - Barbara Korsch

I. Introduction

Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary, and Transdisciplinary Approaches to Health Communication: Where Do We Draw the Lines?

Building Health Communication Theories in the 21st Century

Narrative Turns Epic: Continuing Developments in Health Narrative Scholarship

II. Delivery systems of formal care

How Medical Interaction Shapes and Reflects the Physician-Patient Relationship

Beyond Primary Care Providers: A Discussion of Health Communication Roles and Challenges for Healthcare Professionals and Others

Telemedicine: Reviewing the Past, Looking Towards the Future

Health Care Teams: Communication and Effectiveness

Working Well: Communicating Health in Organizational Contexts

Relationship Building and Situational Publics: Theoretical Approaches Guiding Today's Health Public Relations

Theory and Practice in Risk Communication: A Review of the Literature and Visions for the Future

III. Health [Mis]information Sources

Health Information Seeking

Online Health Information: Conceptual Challenges and Theoretical Opportunities

Developing Effective Media Campaigns for Health Promotion

International Health Campaigns in Developing Countries

Social Marketing: Its Meaning, Use, and Application for Health Communication

Popular Media and Health: Images and Effects

Advertising in Health Communication: Promoting Pharmaceuticals and Dietary Supplements to US Consumers

IV. Mediators and Moderators of Care and Understanding

Explaining Illness: Issues Concerning the Co-Construction of Explications

Integrating Health Literacy in Health Communication

Culture, Communication and Health: A Guiding Framework

Social Support, Social Networks, and Health

Computer Mediated Social Support: Promises and Pitfalls for Individuals Coping with Health Concerns

Insights about Health from Family Communication Theories

Everyday Interpersonal Communication and Health

V. [Un]intended Outcomes of Health Communication

The Importance of Communication in Collaborative Decision Making: Facilitating Shared Mind and the Management of Uncertainty

Provider-Patient Interaction and Related Outcomes

Stress, Burnout, and Supportive Communication: A Review of Research in Health Organizations

Lifespan and End-of-Life Health Communication

Stigma Communication and Health

Communication and Health Disparities

Our Open Sourced Research Framework for the Next Decade: National Health Communication and Health IT Objectives for 2020

VI. Methods in Health Communication

Conversation Analysis and Health Communication

Social Networks and Health Communication

Qualitative Methods: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Daily Practice

Community Organizing Research Approaches

Advancing Health Communication Research: Issues and Controversies in Research Design and Data Analysis

Using New Technologies to Enhance Health Communication Research Methodology

VII. Overarching Issues in Health Communication

Translating health communication research into practice: The influence of health communication scholarship on health policy, practice, and outcomes

(Re)Viewing Health Communication and Related Interdisciplinary Curricula: Past, Present, and Prospective Lens/Frames

Ethical in Communication for Health Promotion in Clinical Settings and Campaigns: New Challenges and Enduring Dilemmas