Abstract

This chapter highlights issues and controversies in health communication research stemming from a view of health communication as comprising processes through which an individual or an audience engages, either directly or indirectly, information that can influence health-relevant beliefs and behavior, regardless of whether that information was or was not intended to affect health outcomes. The chapter explores four themes of importance for health communication researchers in recent years and into the foreseeable future: measurement problems related to key variables, machine learning, issues in model development and testing, and statistical issues.