Health Communication Cheat Sheet
The core ideas of Health Communication distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.
Quick Reference
Health Literacy
The degree to which individuals can obtain, process, understand, and act on basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Low health literacy is associated with poorer health outcomes, higher hospitalization rates, and less use of preventive services.
Shared Decision-Making
A collaborative process in which clinicians and patients work together to make healthcare decisions that align with the best available evidence and the patient's values, preferences, and circumstances. It respects patient autonomy while leveraging clinical expertise.
Message Framing
The strategic presentation of health information in terms of either the benefits of taking action (gain frame) or the costs of failing to act (loss frame). Gain-framed messages tend to be more effective for prevention behaviors, while loss-framed messages can be more persuasive for detection behaviors.
Health Belief Model
A psychological framework that explains and predicts health behaviors by focusing on individuals' perceptions of susceptibility to a health threat, severity of the threat, benefits of taking action, barriers to action, cues to action, and self-efficacy.
Risk Communication
The purposeful exchange of information about health risks between experts and the public, designed to help individuals and communities understand the nature, magnitude, and significance of risks and make informed decisions about how to respond.
Cultural Competence in Health Communication
The ability to design and deliver health messages that are respectful of and responsive to the cultural beliefs, practices, language preferences, and health literacy levels of diverse populations, thereby reducing health disparities.
Social Marketing in Health
The application of commercial marketing principles and techniques to influence target audience behaviors that benefit individual and societal health. It involves segmenting audiences, understanding their motivations, and designing interventions around the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion.
eHealth and Digital Health Communication
The use of information and communication technologies, including websites, mobile apps, wearable devices, social media, and telemedicine platforms, to deliver health information, support behavior change, and facilitate patient-provider communication.
Motivational Interviewing
A collaborative, person-centered counseling approach designed to strengthen an individual's own motivation and commitment to behavior change by exploring and resolving ambivalence. It uses open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening, and summarizing.
Health Misinformation and Infodemic
The spread of false, inaccurate, or misleading health information, whether intentional (disinformation) or unintentional (misinformation). An infodemic refers to an overwhelming volume of information, including false information, during a health crisis that undermines the public health response.
Key Terms at a Glance
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