Top Papers in Health Communication

Undocumented college students face systemic oppression, which they may challenge with advocacy. Past research often focuses on one type of advocacy at a time, but Advocacy Communication Theory (ACT) conceptualizes advocacy as multidimensional-minoritized people can engage in communicative strategies at the interpersonal, mediated, community, organizational, and policy levels to challenge systemic oppression (i.e., advocacy communication). Thus, we used three waves of longitudinal survey data from 366 undocumented students, primarily of Latina/o/x origin, and conducted latent profile analyses. We found four advocacy communication profiles: Infrequent Advocators, Interpersonal Advocators, Organizational Advocators, and Frequent Advocators. Further, the more students observed their family engage in undocumented advocacy, and the more students saw negative media depictions of undocumented immigrants, the more likely students were to be frequent advocators compared to infrequent advocators, thereby supporting ACT's propositions and highlighting how interpersonal and mediated messages about undocumented immigrants play important roles in undocumented students' advocacy communication. 

This paper presents a state of the science on health and risk information acquisition, focusing on current approaches to conceptualizing, theorizing, and measuring information acquisition within communication. The paper distinguishes seeking from scanning as well as other types of information behavior. We argue that our current focus on seeking and scanning limits our understanding of the complex phenomenon of information acquisition and that scholars would do well to consider the perspectives of those beyond communication. Furthermore, in addition to reviewing current theorizing on information seeking, we argue that there is need more for more macro theories of information behavior that better consider the current informational environment, as well as theories that examine the actual information acquisition process, in addition to search outcomes. Finally, we discuss opportunities for new methods to capture and better understand health and risk information behavior in today's media and technological environment. 

The disproportionate impact of HIV among young Black sexual minority men (BSMM) makes understanding their engagement in safer sex communication and its relationship to safer sex behavior both timely and important. Research has shown that safer sex communication and behaviors are often positively linked, however this work is limited by its conceit that safer sex communication occurs in a social vacuum and with sex partners only. For young people in particular, safer sex communication is more likely to occur with peers than with sex partners and more often in public communication settings such as social media. In this study, we draw on social normative and social learning theories to examine the masspersonal safer sex communication (i.e., Facebook posts about safer sex) and safer sex behavior (i.e., condom use) in a cohort of BSMM (N = 340), with an eye toward understanding their relationship with the safer sex communication and behaviors of their BSMM Facebook friends. Using linear network autocorrelation regression models, our results showed that BSMM's safer sex communication and condom use behavior were each associated with the communication and behavior of their online peers. Specifically, BSMM's condom use behavior was positively associated with their friends' condom use behavior and friends' safer sex communication, and BSMMs' safer sex communication was positively associated with friends' safer sex communication. Moreover, contrary to prior research, BSSM's safer sex communication and condom use were not related to one another, suggesting that talking about safer sex on social media should not be interpreted to be an indication of engagement in safer sex behavior. These findings underscore an opportunity to leverage peer influence in social media networks, particularly in the form of masspersonal communication, to encourage cascades of safer sex messaging among peers and adoption of safer sex behavior. 

To reduce the risk of transmission in the mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) outbreak, it is crucial for public health organizations and mass media to provide accurate, tailored, and culturally sensitive risk communication that does not stigmatize minority communities. In an online experiment (N = 372), we tested a theory-informed integrated model that examined gay and bisexual men's response to risk communication about mpox that targeted the ingroup (ingroup-framed) versus the general population (general-framed). Gay and bisexual men who received an ingroup-framed risk message had stronger protective behavioral intention through heightened risk perception. However, this intended effect of risk message framing on promoting protective behavioral intention was negated by an unintended effect through perceived morality threat to sexual identity and defensive processing. These effects further varied depending on people's level of identification with their sexuality. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the social identity implications of risk communication. 

Guided by the theory of communicative (dis)enfranchisement (TCD), this study analyzes 290 narrative posts from people diagnosed with Type One Diabetes (T1D). Using thematic co-occurrence analysis (TCA), an innovative method that allows researchers to map and visualize thematic relationships, we identify four anticipated messages of (dis)enfranchising talk (DT) (I don't understand, I want pity, I can't manage my T1D, and I don't deserve privacy), five experienced DT (provider pressure, assumptions, others knowing more than you, material barriers, and internalized DT), and five responses to DT (denial, protective buffering, constructing enfranchising messages, owning an imperfect diabetic narrative, and learning from others). Two theoretical relationships were identified between anticipatory and experienced messages (inability to manage and others knowing more) and experienced messages and responses to DT (material barriers and owning an imperfect diabetic narrative). We offer theoretical implications and practical applications for people with T1D, medical providers, and families of those with T1D, with healthcare policy considerations.