The Contributions of Health Communication to Eliminating Health Disparities

The pressing need to eliminate health disparities calls on public health professionals to use every effective tool possible. Health communication, defined as the study and use of methods to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health, was first recognized as a subset of the field of communication in 1975, when the Health Communication Division of the International Communication Association was founded.1,2 The National Communication Association formed a division of the same name in 1985. In 1997, the Public Health Education and Health Promotion section within the American Public Health Association formally recognized health communication as part of . . .