ABSTRACT
Health communication has grown into an increasingly signifi cant specialty at the forefront of research and instruction in the fi eld of communication. This area of study formally originated in the mid-1970s when members of an International Communication Association (ICA) interest group adopted the label “health communication,” although the interdisciplinary marriage between health and communication was “certainly a common-law relationship” long before that (Finnegan, 1989, p. 9). This specialization has developed rapidly in response to growing pragmatic and policy interests, particularly in federal public health agencies and among private sector health care providers. Pressing needs to address problems such as smoking, substance abuse, obesity, poor nutritional habits, and AIDS have given a strong impetus (and expanded funding) to the systematic study of health communication processes and effects, as the area provides a ripe context for testing and advancing communication theory.
