Health Communication and Informatics

The Health Communication and Informatics section of the journal addresses the use of communication as a strategy to promote health and prevent disease. Health communication is an interdisciplinary field that draws from disciplines and frameworks such as psychology, economics, sociology, business, public policy, media studies, and social marketing. Health communication focuses on the application of these disciplines to changing health-promoting and disease-preventing behaviours. Health informatics is the science of information engineering applied to health care and public health. This includes the management and use of patient health care information and health information technology applied to behaviour change. This section publishes works that help to shape theory and practice and build the body of evidence relating to health communication and informatics. It focuses on communication at all levels of social ecology—interpersonal, digital, and mass media –and all channels to deliver messages that promote health behaviour change. The section takes a broad view of the environment within which human behaviour occurs, including both social and physical dimensions, and how it can be modified through communication to promote health. Overall, this section aims to advance the state of knowledge of health communication methodologies. It seeks to foster research that addresses health behaviours at all stages of change, from upstream policy and environmental influences to proximal individual influences. The section is interested in research on multiple co-occurring behaviours and lifestyle factors and seeks to address diverse demographic groups worldwide to improve health and health care for all.