User:MTucker30/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Health Communication

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I am interested in the health field so I found this article more interesting than the others.

Evaluate the article
Health Communication arose during the early 1900's during the same time the public health field was starting to take shape. It quickly became a much needed field of study as the need to communicate important information from the government and other organizations to larger populations/areas dramatically increased. The Health Communication examines how different communication strategies can be implemented to help encourage people to live a healthier lifestyle as well as improve health literacy among populations. There are four main outlets of health communication that include, promotional health information, interactions between the caregiver and the patient, public events concerning health topics and general education to the public. Overall, the main objective of health communication is to provide health education to those who do not have access to health knowledge and to benefit people's lives in a positive way. The importance of this is that by communicating about the importance of health and different health related events, people can be inspired to live a healthier life and an increased level of longevity. To enter the Health Communication profession, a bachelor's degree in health communication is a necessity and should also possess some important qualities such as, perceptive and empathic listening, legible penmanship, proper communication education, as well as being able to communicate clearly. Health communication professionals address a wide range of communication topics across the health care system relating to patient-provider discussions, community/family communication, health care education, and public health campaigns. The channels for conveying important messages has significantly improved from the start of the 1900's, making it more proficient for health communication professionals to broadcast public health information. One of the most effective ways to communicate such information is through mass media, primarily through Television and the internet. Now that the access of information is more abundant than ever, it is even easier to promote health education to the public as well as improve their health literacy. Another advantage of this is that Health Communication has become more essential in notifying the public about disastrous situations such as, floods, earthquakes, large scale fires and more. The spread of health communication has the potential to save lives and provides an advantage to those who live in geological areas prone to natural disasters. Moreover, health communication is also used to convey important information about new health care policies and even new up-comings on disease prevention. This being said, there are often some challenges in Health Communication, the biggest issue being the widening gap of health care illiteracy. While Health Communication seeks to provide proper health education and literacy, ill-messages and false information are still very prevalent in today's society. Because of this false information people can be persuaded into believing in such false knowledge which in turn can decrease the public's understanding on health.

References[edit]

 * 1) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy People 2010. Volumes 1 and 2, Chapt. 11, p 11–20. https://web.archive.org/web/20100122053253/http://www.healthypeople.gov/document/HTML/Volume1/11HealthCom.htl
 * 2) Wikipedia: Heath Communication. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_communication.