The Routledge Handbook of Health Communication (Routledge Handbooks in Communication Studies)

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.

Teresa L. Thompson is Professor of Communication at the University of Dayton, USA. She edits the journal Health Communication.

Nancy Grant Harrington is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Kentucky, USA.