Mapping Health Communication Scholarship: Breadth, Depth, and Agenda of Published Research in Health Communication

Abstract

This study analyzed trends and patterns in the 22 years of research published in Health Communication. A content analysis of 642 articles examined the breadth and depth that Health Communication has achieved since its inception. Readers of Health Communication can thus see the history and scope of health communication as defined in the pages of this journal, and juxtapose this historical overview in the backdrop of the current scholarship that appears in the journal. We also identified some notable trends in research for the future development of the journal Health Communication specifically and the health communication discipline in general.