ABSTRACT
Health communication and health education activities share the ultimate goal of improving individuals’ or social groups’ health behavior and health status by means of strategic communication. Health communication can be dened as:
[a] multifaceted and multidisciplinary field of research, theory, and practice . . . concerned with reaching different populations and groups to exchange health-related information, ideas, and methods in order to influence, engage, empower, and support individuals, communities, health care professionals, patients, policymakers, organizations, special groups and the public, so that they will champion, introduce, adopt, or sustain a health or social behavior, practice, or policy that will ultimately improve individual, community, and public health outcomes. (Schiavo, 2013, p. 9)
This description also fits health education, which has been defined as “[a]ny combination of planned learning experiences using evidence based practices and/or sound theories that provide the opportunity to acquire knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors” (Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology, 2012, p. 12). Because of considerable overlapping with regard to theoretical foundations, intervention strategies, and emphasis on health behavior changes, the terms health communication and health education are subsequently used interchangeably.
