HS 420- day 1

How does health

literacy hurt a person
with health issues?

What are ways to use

health communication
to stop health literacy?

How can you avoid

using health-related
resources in a wrong
way?

What are the

communication
methods?

What is the action

model of

Human communication processes at

multiple ecological levels. As a key
health promotion practice skill, health
communication is a core subject for
public health professionals and
increasingly a sub specialization.

Communication can be defined in many

ways. A simple definition says that
communication is the process of
creating shared meaning.
This definition leaves open the
discussion of what the process entails
but highlights the intended outcome
focusing on shared meaning.

Health education specialists need to be

aware of the types of electronic healthrelated resources available, and how to
make decisions about when to use each
one based on the information needed.
Whether the resource is a bibliographic
database or a Web-based information
source, health education specialists
need to analyze and evaluate the
worthiness of the information retrieved,
as some information on the Web is
inaccurate or untruthful. Health
education specialists should look for
sites hosted by reputable sources,
consider biases reflected in the
information, and determine if the
information is outdated or misleading.

Health literacy is the degree to which

individuals have the capacity to obtain,
process, and understand basic health
information and services needed to
make appropriate health decisions.
Literacy can be defined as a person's
ability to read, write, speak, and
compute and solve problems at levels
necessary.

Avarietyofmodelsexistthatdepictdifferent
aspectsofthecommunicationprocess.Four
commonmodelsare(1)actionmodel,(2)
interactionmodel,(3)transactionmodel,and(4)

HS 420- day 2

Whataretheelementsofthe
communicationprocess?

Whatistherelationship
betweencommunicationand
attitudechange?

Whatishealthliteracy?

Whyaretheseveralkey
theoriesthatarecommon
betweenhealth
communicationandhealth
promotion,includingthe
applicationofthesetheoriesto
publichealthissues?

Whatisanappropriatetheory
whenusinghealth
communicationstrategiesina
healthpromotioncontext?

Oneoftheearliestandmostwidelyused
descriptionsofhowthecommunication
processworksistheShannonWeaver
model,depictingthecomponentsofthe
processandhowtheyarerelated.
Sender:thepersonorsourceofthe
informationtobecommunicated.This
wouldbetheinitiatorofcommunication;
fromahealthcommunicationperspective,
thesenderwouldbetheindividual,
organization,oragencythatoriginateda
healthmessage.
2.Encoding:thewaytheinformationis
packagedfortransmission.Whena
messageisencoded,itisputintoa
particularlanguageorsymbolsthatare
expectedtobedecodedbytheintended
receiver.InthemovieWindtalkers
(Erickson&Woo,2002),themilitaryused
theNavajolanguagetotransmitmilitary
informationsothattheenemycouldnot
decodetheinformation(becausetheyhad
noonewhospokeNavajo).Youmayuse
abbreviationswhenyousendtextmessages
thatyouarecertaintherecipientwill
understand.Puttingyourmessageinto
thoseabbreviationsisencoding.
3.Message:thepackageofinformationto
becommunicated.Thisreallyreferstothe
contentofwhatisbeingcommunicated.It
canbesimpleorcomplex,whichalso
relatestothelengthofthemessageand
howeasilyitcanbedecodedand
interpreted.
4.Channel:themediumusedtotransmit
theencodedmessage.Typicalchannelsthat
areusedineverydaylifeincludefaceto
facecommunication,telephone,email,
newspaper,radio,television,andwebsite.
Anyorallofthesechannelscanbeusedto
communicateaspecificmessage.Inhealth
communication,channelsareselected
strategicallybasedonwhatmediathetarget

HS 420 day three

What is the Interaction

Modelof
Communication?

HowdoestheInteraction
ModelofCommunication
modelconnecttohealth
communication?

WhyisInteractionModel
ofCommunication
important?

What is the Transaction

Modelof
Communication?

Why is Transaction
ModelofCommunication
important?

How does the

TransactionModelof
Communicationand
InteractionModelof
Communicationconnect?

5.Decoding:thewaythemessageisunpackaged
followingtransmission.Asthesenderencodes
messagesintoaformthattheybelievethereceiver
willunderstand,thereceiverdecodesthemessage
basedontheirknowledgeandexperience,aswellas
thecontextofthemessage.
6.Receiver:thepersonortargetaudienceofthe
informationcommunicated.Messagescanbesentto
anindividualreceiverortomassesofreceivers,
dependingontheintentofthemessageandthe
channelused.
7.Noise:anyofavarietyoftypesofinterferenceat
anypointduringtheprocess.Noisecanbethings
thatinterruptthesender,suchasthingsgoingonin
thebackground,orthingsthatdistractthereceiver,
suchashungerorpreoccupation.Noisecanalso
occurinthechannel,suchasaslowInternet
connection,staticonthetelevision,oradroppedcell
phonecall.
InteractionModelofCommunicationThenextlevel
ofcomplexityincommunicationprocessesaddsthe
elementofinteractionbetweensenderandreceiver.
Inthismodel,communicationisatwowayprocess
allowingforatransmissionfromthesendertothe
receiverandthenfeedbackfromthereceivertothe
sender.
TransactionModelofCommunicationTakingthe
dynamicsofcommunicationprocessesevenfurther
isthetransactionmodel,whichbeginstorecognize
thatcommunicationhappensinvariousiterations
andcycles.Thisisamoresystemicviewof
communicationthataccountsforinterpretationand
reinterpretationofmessages,asthoseparticipatingin
thecommunicationbuildunderstandingbetween
them.Inthismodel,bothpartiesaresimultaneously
sendersandreceiversofmessages,whichflowback
andforthacrossthechannel.
Welleducatedpeoplewhofunctionataveryhigh
levelinacomplexworkenvironmentmayhavevery
littleknowledgeofhowthehealthcaresystemworks
andmaynotbeabletonavigateiteffectively
withoutassistance.