Translating Health Communication Research Into Practice: The Importance of Implementing and Sustaining Evidence-Based Health Communication Interventions

Abstract

This article examines the connections between health communication research and applications. It appears that many health care and health promotion practitioners have been slow to use research to help them accomplish their complex health communication goals. The result is that many complex health communication efforts that might benefit from research are guided more by good intentions, precedent, and expedience than by strong evidence. The complexity of achieving desired health communication goals, such as influencing health behaviors and guiding health-related decision making, demands strategic guidance from relevant and rigorous research. This article examines strategies for promoting the application of the best health communication research to guide development, implementation, and institutionalization of evidence-based health communication programs, policies, and practices.