Communication is pervasive in everyday life; so too is health communication. As a relatively new area of study, health communication has focused more on formal than informal contexts. When investigating informal contexts, researchers attended more to mass than to interpersonal communication. This paper addresses the "missing box," the role of everyday interpersonal interaction as an arena of health communication. The paper presents a rationale for exploring everyday interpersonal communication and health and offers social influence as a theoretical framework for that exploration. The influence of everyday communication on health: (a) can be understood only when social situations are viewed through the reality of the participants; (b) may be positive or negative; (c) may be planned or spontaneous; and (d) is anchored more in the social reality and social norms of the participants than in health knowledge, health information, and traditionally-defined health beliefs and behaviors. HIV/AIDS is argued a fruitful context for exploring the interrelationships of everyday interpersonal communication and health. The numerous roles of everyday interpersonal communication in the HIV/AIDS in the epidemic include establishing and reinforcing a social construction of the disease that yields recurring patterns of meaning. In turn, those meanings direct behavior (e.g., risk-taking, prevention, testing decisions, and disclosure decisions) and influence or are influenced by everyday interaction. Reviewing literature on the various roles of everyday interpersonal interaction and HIV/AIDS helps to clarify the potentially powerful and often neglected influence of everyday interaction on health and provides road-signs for future research and practice.
Learning Objectives: Session participants will (1) be able to identify the roles of health communication in health promotion and disease prevention efforts, (2) understand the diverse array of areas of theory and research comprising the field, and the relevance to health communication practice, and (3) become familiar with two major organizations for professionals interested in health communication.
Keywords: Health Communications, Research Agenda
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.