Strategic Urban Health Communication Charles C. Okigbo, editor People are bombarded with messages continuously and sorting through them constantly. In this milieu, critical ideas about health promotion and illness prevention are forced to compete with distracting, conflicting, even contradictory information. To get vital messages through, communication must be effective, targeted, artful—in a word, strategic. Strategic Urban Health Communication provides a road map for understanding strategy, enhancing strategic planning skills, and implementing strategic communication campaigns. Deftly written chapters link the art and science of strategic planning to world health goals such as reducing health inequities and eradicating diseases. Flexibility is at the heart of these cases, which span developed and developing countries, uses of traditional and digital media, and chronic and acute health challenges. And the contributors ground their dispatches in the larger context of health promotion, giving readers useful examples of thinking globally while working locally. Included in the coverage: Urbanization, population, and health myths: addressing common misconceptions. Integrating HIV/family planning programs: opportunities for strategic communication. The role of sports in strategic health promotion in low-income areas. The Internet as a sex education tool: a case study from Thailand. Advertising and childhood obesity in China. Health communication strategies for sustainable development in a globalized world. Balancing depth of understanding of audiences and methods of reaching them, Strategic Urban Health Communication is a forward-looking resource geared toward professionals and researchers in urban health, global health, and health communication.

Public health officials are constantly dispensing important health information to the masses through various media outlets. This comprehensive, practical new book teaches important skills and techniques to communicate public health issues effectively, including: health communication in emergency preparedness; the importance of social marketing techniques; public-private partnerships; building direct links between communication and health service delivery by way of pragmatic strategies; maximizing information reach through interdisciplinary planning; and much more.

Health Communication: Strategies and Skills for a New Era provides a practical process model for developing a health communication intervention. The book also explores exposure to media and how it shapes our conceptions of health and illness. Using a life stages and environments approach, the book touches on the patient role and how we ‘hear’ information from health care providers as well as guidance on how to be a thoughtful consumer of health information.

Health Communication: From Theory to Practice is a much needed resource for the fast-growing field of health communication. It combines a comprehensive introduction to current issues, theories, and special topics in health communication with a hands-on guide to program development and implementation. While the book is designed for students, professionals and organizations with no significant field experience, it also includes advanced topics for health communication practitioners, public health experts, researchers, and health care providers with an interest in this field.

We are what we eat. That old expression seems particularly poignant every time we have our blood drawn for a routine physical to check our cholesterol levels. And, it's not just what we eat that affects our health. Whole ranges of behaviors ultimately make a difference in how we feel and how we maintain our health. Lifestyle choices have enormous impact on our health and well being. But, how do we communicate the language of good health so that it is uniformly received-and accepted-by people from different cultures and backgrounds? Take, for example, the case of a 66 year old Latina. She has been told by her doctor that she should have a mammogram. But her sense of fatalism tells her that it is better not to know if anything is wrong. To know that something is wrong will cause her distress and this may well lead to even more health problems. Before she leaves her doctor's office she has decided not to have a mammogram-that is until her doctor points out that having a mammogram is a way to take care of herself so that she can continue to take care of her family. In this way, the decision to have a mammogram feels like a positive step. Public health communicators and health professionals face dilemmas like this every day. Speaking of Health looks at the challenges of delivering important messages to different audiences. Using case studies in the areas of diabetes, mammography, and mass communication campaigns, it examines the ways in which messages must be adapted to the unique informational needs of their audiences if they are to have any real impact. Speaking of Health looks at basic theories of communication and behavior change and focuses on where they apply and where they don't. By suggesting creative strategies and guidelines for speaking to diverse audiences now and in the future, the Institute of Medicine seeks to take health communication into the 21st century. In an age where we are inundated by multiple messages every day, this book will be a critical tool for all who are interested in communicating with diverse communities about health issues.

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