*CFP* "COMMUNICATING HEALTH. FUNDAMENTALS AND PRACTICES TOWARDS A BETTER HEALTH", SPECIAL DOSSIER, COMUNICAÇÃO PÚBLICA JOURNAL

The special dossier ‘Communicating Health – fundamentals and practices towards a better health’ addresses communication in the health context, exploring the coding, transmission, promotion and reception of health contents aimed at reaching better health results and fostering healthier individuals and societies.

The existing literature tends to emphasize communication as a catalyst of results (Levinson, Roter & Mullooly, 1997; Ong, Haes, Hoos & Lammes, 1995, p. 903; Stewart 1995), as an effective bridge for establishing the therapeutic relation (Longnecker, 2010) and as a lever for massive and low cost dissemination of messages in the media (Wakefield, Loken & Hornik, 2014).

Communication is seen as the “need of the hour” (Ranjan, Kumari & Chakrawarty, 2015, p. 1) and as the “key to a healthier tomorrow” (Ratzan, 1994), bringing about answers for dealing with, and solving, communication problems in the health context: a) Europeans have low health literacy levels (HLS-EU, 2012). Over a third of USA adults (77 million people) will have difficulties with ordinary health tasks, such as following patient package insert instructions. 

That limited health knowledge affects American adults across every ethnic group (United States Department of Health & Human Services, 2003); b) in current clinical practice, human communication is often misused (Kreps, 1996, p. 43); c) nurses, for instance, overestimate their patients’ health literacy level (Johnson, 2014, p. 43) and such overestimation may contribute to the generalised problem of poor health results and hospital readmission rates (Dickens, Lambert, Cromwell & Piano, 2013); d) even in non-stressing clinical interactions, patients are reluctant to admit that they have failed to understand something and feel compelled to follow recommendations as they see fit, instead of asking for further clarification (e.g. Baker et al., 1996; Dickens et al., 2013; Martin et al., 2011; Parikh, Parker, Nursers, Baker & Williams, 1996); e) there are not enough studies on health communication / interaction and literacy (e.g. Ishikawa & Kiuchi, 2010); f) a recommendation has been put forward to include training in communication skills in clinical syllabus and practice (Ranjan, Kumari & Chakrawarty, 2015); g) health literacy tools have shown to be insufficient for generating the organisational changes needed to improve organisations’ health literacy (Lloyd et al., 2018); h) despite their potential for bringing about positive changes, or precluding negative changes, in health related behaviours in big populations, the public’s exposure to media campaigns is generally passive. This is due to such campaigns having to compete with factors like marketing of products, powerful social norms and behaviours led by vice or habit (Wakefield, Loken & Hornik, 2014); i) we still need to get a better grasp on the ideal of media campaign, for they seem to be more effective when they are intense, long-running and well targeted to a specific population group (Fraser, 2019).

Research on health communication brings thus implications associated with the identification and provision of better and more effective communication strategies and practices, which in turn will improve the overall health of society (Stacks & Salween, p. 489).

Under the title ‘Comunicar a saúde - fundamentos e práticas para uma melhor saúde’ (‘Communicating Health – fundamentals and practices towards a better health’), the current special dossier is calling for papers that bring a significant contribution either to the theoretical interpretation or to the empirical and applied knowledge of communication in the health context, with a main focus on the interpersonal, organisational and media contexts. Interdisciplinarity and diversity of theoretical paradigms, methodological options, geopolitical arenas and applied communication approaches in health are welcomed.

On the relation ‘better communication / better health’ in interpersonal (therapeutic relation), organisational (literate organisations) and media contexts, our object is to:

• explore health-promoting communication strategies practices, theories and models; 
• understand the relation between communication skills and health (access, understanding and use of health information); 
• gain knowledge on communication fundamentals and best practices committed to improve health literacy; 
• understand the processes by which health messages are received and how they are subsequently used; 
• develop solutions in the actual health context (national or international), with effects on health improvement.

The following are among the intended focuses:

• fundamentals of health communication; 
• interpersonal relationship between health professional and patient; 
• communication skills and health literacy skills; 
• practices of a literate health organisation; 
• public health media campaigns; 
• health promotion and disease prevention campaigns; 
• government communication for a healthy society; 
• agenda-building on health communication.

Key dates

Deadline for Submissions: 15 July 2020

Deadline for Notification of Acceptance: 15 October 2020

Deadline for submitting the final version of accepted paper: 01 November 2020

Publication date: 15 December 2020

Submission guidelines:

Manuscripts should follow the preformatted template and be submitted by e-mail (sent to: cpublica@escs.ipl.pt). Please include ‘Dossie Tematico 04_CS’ in the subject of your e-mail.

Papers can be written in English, Spanish or Portuguese, always using Microsoft Word. They are to include an abstract of up to 900 characters, five keywords written in both the language of the paper and in English, and the author’s details (name, affiliation, position, field of study and contact information). The full paper, with reference list, annexes and citations should not exceed 50.000 characters (including spaces, endnotes, references, tables, images, etc.). Studies, Notes and Book Reviews should not exceed 10.000 characters (more information).

Upon acceptance of a paper for publication, the individual or collective author(s) will be asked to assign copyright to Comunicação Pública.

Editors:

Célia Belim (ISCSP-Universidade de Lisboa, CAPP) and Cristina Vaz de Almeida (CAPP-ISCSP-Universidade de Lisboa; ISPA)

Languages: Portuguese; English; Spanish