The Influences of Human Communication on Health Outcomes

Abstract

This article examines the many assertions made in the health communication literature about the importance of communication as an essential process in promoting effective health care. If these assertions are true, then researchers should be able to demonstrate the ways in which communication influences the accomplishment of health care goals—how communication influences health outcomes. The links between health communication and health outcomes are examined, as well as the health outcomes literature. The authors propose a conceptual model of the role of communication in achieving advantageous outcomes in health care and health promotion based on the systems transformation model. The model can serve as a template for both guiding research on communication and health outcomes and for directing the health communication activities of interdependent participants in the modern health care system to promote desired health outcomes in health care/health promotion efforts.