bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Shrimp Farming in the North Eastern Coastal Plain Zone of Odisha: A Micro-economic Analysis
Authors: Mandal B. K. , Nandi A. K. , Rout R. K. , Behera S. , Sahoo S. K.
Published: September 2022

The Present experiment examines and evaluates the socioeconomic status of the household of shrimp farmers, aspects of shrimp cultivation, and the cost and return structures of shrimp farming. Through random selection, farmers from two distinct Balasore district blocks have been purposefully chosen for the study. Additionally, information on various costs and return streams from 40 farmers, twenty (20) from each block, has been gathered. The information was gathered from chosen farmers with the goal of examining the cost and return structure of shrimp farming. Step-by-step regression analysis was used to identify the elements that affect shrimp farming yield when compared to seasonal paddy cultivation. To identify the important variables the Cob-Douglas production function has been used through a stepwise regression model where the cost of feed, amount of labor both for operation and management, and the duration of cultivation in a particular pond are highly significant and the model is also significant in the selected region. From the correlation matrix, the degree of association has also been presented in the discussion.  The model is finally 96.8% significant with a 5% threshold of significance in the fifth stage. As a result, it is clear that this model is highly significant at the 5% level of significance, meaning that the independent variables can account for 96.8% of the dependent variable (productivity). It is found that each of the models is highly significant at a 5% level of significance.
Multi-Drug Resistant Bacterial Status of Borehole Water in Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria
Authors: Adegoke S. A.
Published: September 2022

Transmission of pathogens through water is of grave public health concern. Bacteria are of major concern because of the pathogenicity and etiologic agents of life threatening infections.

The multidrug resistant (MDR) bacterial status of the borehole water samples from Kogi State University, Anyigba was studied. The samples ten each from point A and B were collected from two main borehole water sources and analyzed for MDR bacteria. A total of seven isolates (Echerichia coli, Bacillus sp, Klebsiella sp, Pseudomonas sp, Staphylococcus sp, Streptococcus sp and Salmonella sp) were identified by standard microbiological methods. Phenotypic identification of antibiotic resistance profile using the disk diffusion method was carried out. Pseudomonas sp, Streptococcus sp, Staphylococcus sp, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella sp. were found to be 100% resistant to all the imported antibiotics while 55.6% and 66.7% resistance were recorded for Salmonella sp. and Bacillus sp respectively. Percentage resistance to all indigenous antibiotics recorded were 40% for Pseudomonas sp., 30% for Salmonella sp, 40% for Escherichia coli, 30% for Klebsiella sp, 20% for Staphylococcus sp, 20% for Streptococcus sp, and 10% for Bacillus sp. The results showed that all the isolates were multi drug resistant (MDR) and the presence of these organisms poses great risk to the university community as well as individuals that consume the water and use for other domestic purposes.
In vitro Antiplasmodial and Haemolytic Activities of Trema orientalis, Cnestis ferruginea and Dialium dinklagei Used to Treat Malaria in Côte d’Ivoire
Authors: Tuo Karim , Beourou Sylvain , Silue Kigbafori Dieudonné , Djaman Allico Joseph , Coulibaly Adama , Toure André Offianan
Published: September 2022

Malaria constitutes one of the biggest health problems in tropical Africa due to the resistance of human malaria parasites to anti-malarial compounds. Research focused on plants used in traditional medicine to treat malaria is still a viable alternative for the creation of novel anti-malarial drugs. This study evaluated extracts from three medicinal plants, Trema orientalis, Cnestis ferruginea and Dialium dinklagei, used in traditional medicine in Côte d’Ivoire, for in vitro antiplasmodial activities. SYBR GREEN fluorescence method was used to evaluate the in vitro inhibitory activity of the extracts, chloroquine, artesunate and quinine against Plasmodium falciparum field isolates and two laboratory strains of Plasmodium falciparum: the chloroquine sensitive 3D7 and the chloroquine resistant Dd2. In comparison to plant extracts, chloroquine, quinine, and artesunate were chosen as reference antimalarials. In addition, the haemolytic activity of extracts showing good antiplasmodial activity was evaluated. The IC50 and the corresponding correlation coefficients were determined graphically, using In vitro Analysis and Reporting Tool (IVART) software of WWARN (Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network). Results showed that no plant was active with the hexanolic extract. Trema orientalis had moderate activity with the methanolic extract with activities ranging from 14.46µg/mL to 28.32µg/mL. Cnestis ferruginea was active with the decoction extracts with activities ranging from 11.78µg/mL to 13.94µg/mL. Dialium dinklagei was active with both methanolic and aqueous extracts ranging from 12.80µg/mL to 21.67µg/mL. There was less than 1% hemolysis at the concentration of 200 µg/mL of plant extracts. These results validate the reported traditional use of Trema orientalis, Cnestis ferruginea and Dialium dinklagei for malaria treatment in Côte d’Ivoire.
Effects of Plant Growth Regulators (IBA) and Soil Media on Success, Growth and Survival of Stem Cutting of Assam Lemon (Citrus lemon (L) Burm)
Authors: Lalhruaitluanga . , Bahadur Vijay , Prasad V. M. , Kumar Santosh
Published: September 2022

An investigation was carried out to study of the “ Effects of plant growth regulators (IBA) and soil media on success, growth and survival on rooting of stem cutting in Assam Lemon (Citrus lemon (L) Burm).” was successfully carried out in the year 2021-2022 in naturally polyhouse of experimental farm ,under (KVK),Central Agriculture University, Selesih, Aizawl, Mizoram. The experiment was carried out using Factorial Completely Randomized Design (FCRD) with replicated thrice. The cuttings were treated with five different doses of IBA and four different soil media and then planted in raised bed polyhouse. From the experiment, T5M2 (IBA 800ppm+Soil + Sand + vermicompost + Cocopeat (1:1:1:1)) was the best treatment in all the parameters for rooting of stem cutting in Assam lemon and over all the treatment gave the significant response in respect to all the parameters i.e. Date to first new leaf initiation (16.33), Number of leaf per plant (13.50), Plant height (21.43 cm), Shoot length (6.59 cm) , Stem diameter(2.37 cm) , Number of branches (6.08), Length of tap root (7.92 cm), Root spread (8.42 cm), Fresh weight of root (0.54 g), Dry weight of root(0.34 g), Survival percentage of cuttings (1.00), during the observation period in the foot hills of Mizoram.
Diffusion and Awareness of Woman Friendly Farm Tools & Equipment among the Farmers
Authors: Singh Jagdeep , Kumari Mamta
Published: September 2022

Farmers toil day and night to provide food for the world's population, while their social and economic situations deteriorate with each passing day. Indian agriculture is heavily reliant on the monsoon season, which results in abundant agricultural output. Because of a successful monsoon, the agriculture sector has thrived throughout the Covid-19 scenario and has gained about 11 million workers in the previous three years, whereas the other sectors have lost more than 21.7 million jobs in the 2020-21 fiscal years alone. The findings of the literature review revealed that farmers face a wide range of issues, including a lack of mechanization, a lack of irrigation, and lack of working capital etc. An empirical study was conduct to understand whether farmers were aware about the technologies developed by the CAIE, Bhopal & other ICAR institutes in Dhoraji of district Rajkot in Gujarat states. A total of 100 farmers were randomly selected based on convenience to assess the diffusion level & awareness level of technologies among the farmers. The study found that the results were shocking and government has to take prompt actions to increase the awareness and diffusion of technology among the farmers of Dhoraji.
Identification of Deaths Caused by Cancer and COVID-19 in the US During March to December 2020
Authors: Han Xuesong , Hu Xin , Zhao Jingxuan , Jemal Ahmedin , Yabroff K. Robin
Published: September 2022

This cross-sectional study uses 2020 mortality data in the US to analyze deaths caused by cancer and COVID-19 in terms of demographic characteristics, cancer site, and place of death.
Treatment With Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy for Up to 5 Oligometastases in Patients With Cancer
Authors: Olson Robert , Jiang Will , Liu Mitchell , Bergman Alanah , Schellenberg Devin , Mou Benjamin , Alexander Abraham , Carolan Hannah , Hsu Fred , Miller Stacy , Atrchian Siavash , Chan Elisa , Ho Clement , Mohamed Islam , Lin Angela , Berrang Tanya , Bang Andrew , Chng Nick , Matthews Quinn , Baker Sarah , Huang Vicky , Mestrovic Ante , Hyde Derek , Lund Chad , Pai Howard , Valev Boris , Lefresene Shilo , Tyldesley Scott
Published: September 2022

Importance

After the publication of the landmark SABR-COMET trial, concerns arose regarding high-grade toxic effects of treatment with stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) for oligometastases.

Objective

To document toxic effects of treatment with SABR in a large cohort from a population-based, provincial cancer program.

Design, Setting, and Participants

From November 2016 to July 2020, 381 patients across all 6 cancer centers in British Columbia were treated in this single-arm, phase 2 trial of treatment with SABR for patients with oligometastatic or oligoprogressive disease. During this period, patients were only eligible to receive treatment with SABR in these settings in trials within British Columbia; therefore, this analysis is population based, with resultant minimal selection bias compared with previously published SABR series.

Interventions

Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy to up to 5 metastases.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Rate of grade 2, 3, 4, and 5 toxic effects associated with SABR.

Findings

Among 381 participants (122 women [32%]), the mean (SD; range) age was 68 (11.1; 30-97) years, and the median (range) follow-up was 25 (1-54) months. The most common histological findings were prostate cancer (123 [32%]), colorectal cancer (63 [17%]), breast cancer (42 [11%]), and lung cancer (33 [9%]). The number of SABR-treated sites were 1 (263 [69%]), 2 (82 [22%]), and 3 or more (36 [10%]). The most common sites of SABR were lung (188 [34%]), nonspine bone (136 [25%]), spine (85 [16%]), lymph nodes (78 [14%]), liver (29 [5%]), and adrenal (15 [3%]). Rates of grade 2, 3, 4, and 5 toxic effects associated with SABR (based on the highest-grade toxic effect per patient) were 14.2%; (95% CI, 10.7%-17.7%), 4.2% (95% CI, 2.2%-6.2%), 0%, and 0.3% (95% CI, 0%-0.8%), respectively. The cumulative incidence of grade 2 or higher toxic effects associated with SABR at year 2 by Kaplan-Meier analysis was 8%, and for grade 3 or higher, 4%.

Conclusions and Relevance

This single-arm, phase 2 clinical trial found that the incidence of grade 3 or higher SABR toxic effects in this population-based study was less than 5%. Furthermore, the rates of grade 2 or higher toxic effects (18.6%) were lower than previously published for SABR-COMET (29%). These results suggest that SABR treatment for oligometastases has acceptable rates of toxic effects and potentially support further enrollment in randomized phase 3 clinical trials.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02933242
Doxycycline vs Placebo at 12 Weeks in Patients With Mild Thyroid-Associated Ophthalmopathy
Authors: Pan Yuan , Chen Yu-Xi , Zhang Jian , Lin Miao-Li , Liu Guang-Ming , Xu Xue-Liang , Fan Xian-Qun , Zhong Yong , Li Qing , Ai Si-Ming , Xu Wen , Tan Jia , Zhou Hui-Fang , Xu Dong-Dong , Zhang Hui-Ying , Xu Bei , Wang Sha , Ma Jun-Jie , Zhang Shuo , Gan Lin-Yang , Cui Jian-Tao , Li Li , Xie Yan-Yan , Guo Xinxing , Pan-Doh Nathan , Zhu Zhuo-Ting , Lu Yao , Shi Yu-Xun , Xia Yi-Wen , Li Zuo-Yi , Liang Dan
Published: September 2022

Importance

Mild thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) negatively impacts quality of life, yet no clinical guidelines for its treatment are available. Existing evidence supports the use of doxycycline in treating mild TAO.

Objective

To evaluate the short-term (12 weeks) efficacy of doxycycline in treating mild TAO.

Design, Setting, and Participants

In this placebo-controlled multicenter randomized double-masked trial, 148 patients were assessed for eligibility. After exclusions (patients who were pregnant or lactating, had an allergy to tetracyclines, or had uncontrolled systematic diseases), 100 patients with mild TAO (orbital soft tissue affected mildly) at 5 centers in China were enrolled from July 2013 to December 2019 and monitored for 12 weeks.

Interventions

Participants were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive doxycycline (50 mg) or placebo once daily for 12 weeks.

Main Outcomes and Measures

The primary outcome was the rate of improvement at 12 weeks compared with baseline assessed by a composite indicator of eyelid aperture (reduction ≥2 mm), proptosis (reduction ≥2 mm), ocular motility (increase ≥8°), and Graves ophthalmopathy-specific quality-of-life (GO-QOL) scale score (increase ≥6 points). Adverse events were recorded.

Results

A total of 50 participants were assigned to doxycycline and 50 to placebo. The mean (SD) age was 36.7 (9.1) years; 75 participants (75.0%) were female and 100 (100.0%) were Asian. Medication compliance was checked during participant interviews and by counting excess tablets. At week 12, the improvement rate was 38.0% (19 of 50) in the doxycycline group and 16.0% (8 of 50) in the placebo group (difference, 22.0%; 95% CI, 5.0-39.0; P = .01) in the intention-to-treat population. The per-protocol sensitivity analysis showed similar results (39.6% [19 of 48] vs 16.0% [8 of 50]; difference, 23.6%; 95% CI, 6.4-40.8; P = .009). No adverse events other than 1 case of mild gastric acid regurgitation was recorded in either group.

Conclusions and Relevance

The results of this study indicate that oral doxycycline, 50 mg daily, resulted in greater improvement of TAO-related symptoms at 12 weeks compared with placebo in patients with mild TAO. These findings support the consideration of doxycycline for mild TAO but should be tempered by recognizing the relatively short follow-up and the size of the cohort.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02203682
Autoethnography
Authors: Spradley Elizabeth L. , LeBlanc Sarah S.
Published: September 2022

This entry describes autoethnography as a research method influenced by the social construction and narrative turns in communication studies, more generally, and health communication, more specifically. Autoethnography draws on experiences of the self, individually and collaboratively, to develop subjective, rich accounts for sociocultural analysis. Health communication scholars use individual and collective accounts to demonstrate a variety of health communication issues, outcomes, and relationships and to promote social action.
Postcolonialism
Authors: Dasgupta Satarupa
Published: September 2022

This entry describes the impact of colonial and postcolonial influences on the prevalence of adverse health outcomes among marginalized populations in the Global South. For this purpose, the entry uses a case study on postcolonial framing of sex work in contemporary India. An understanding of the colonial history and background is essential to analyze the hierarchical process of marginalization and the health burden of vulnerable populations in postcolonial states.
Clinical Trials
Authors: Occa Aurora , Morgan Susan E.
Published: September 2022

Medical advancements are highly dependent on adequate enrollment in clinical trials. While there are a number of systemic issues that contribute to low accrual to clinical trials, improved communication behaviors and practices can significantly contribute to increases in clinical trial accrual. Here, we review advances in the development of clinical trial communication training programs for clinicians and clinical research staff as well as innovations in patient education that largely focus on new technology and multimedia formats.
Patient–Clinician Communication about Sexual Health
Authors: Anderson Janeane N.
Published: September 2022

This entry provides a description of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and institutional factors that facilitate and serve as barriers to candid discussions about sexuality and sexual health between patients and clinicians within medical settings. Despite the importance of sexual health conversations, unmet needs in patient–clinician sexual communication have been documented in several healthcare settings, including primary care, oncology, cardiology, and care for older adults. Current research is referenced to explore how sociocultural factors and normative beliefs impact sexual communication comfort, willingness, and efficacy for both patients and clinicians. The entry also provides an overview of sexual communication challenges for patients from vulnerable, marginalized communities, namely racial/ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities, adolescents, and people with physical and intellectual disabilities. Suggestions for improving clinician–patient communication about sexual health based on current literature are also provided.
Decision Aids
Authors: Patel Chavez Chandani , Ospina Naykky Singh
Published: September 2022

Shared decision making is a process that seeks to support clinical care by active collaboration between patient and clinicians through conversation. The use of decision aids can support shared decision making in practice by educating and engaging patients before their medical visit and/or by supporting conversations between patient and clinicians during the medical visit. Usually, decision aids will highlight that a medical decision needs to be made, provide evidence‐based information regarding the management options, and integrate the individual values and preferences of patients when considering the available options. Decision aids have shown positive impacts on attributes related to the decision‐making process such as increasing patients' knowledge, accurate risk perception, and decisions that are compatible with their values, but with variable effects on health outcomes (e.g., cost reduction, medication adherence). Despite evidence supporting the use of decision aids, their implementation is hindered by multiple factors at different levels (e.g., patient, clinician, healthcare system), such as time constraints, lack of training, and lack of consensus about content. Possible solutions to implementation barriers will likely require policy changes that support and incentivize the use of decision aids in practice.
Implicit Bias
Authors: Hernandez Rachael
Published: September 2022

Implicit biases in healthcare communication involve the unconscious, automated associations made in medical decision making and communication. These automated assumptions are often built on stereotypes about individuals from certain social groups. As a consequence, implicit bias in interpersonal communication is argued to be an important factor in health disparities among minoritized groups. Implicit bias has been argued to negatively affect healthcare communication with individuals from groups according to race, ethnicity, gender, immigration status, ability, religious affiliation, obesity, age, and sexual orientation or identification. In addition to shaping medical decision making for members of these groups, implicit bias adversely affects both nonverbal and verbal communication. Consequently, social science research has put forth significant efforts to identify, measure, and control these unconscious associations. However, there remains some debate about the existence and remediation of implicit bias.
Patient Navigation
Authors: Eliacin Johanne , Cameron Kenzie A.
Published: September 2022

Patient navigation is a patient‐centered health services delivery care model that promotes effective patient–clinician communication across the care continuum, from health promotion and screening to treatment, survivorship, and end of life. Patient navigation has demonstrated effectiveness in improving care processes among patients with chronic health conditions such as cancer and diabetes, and among racial and ethnic minority populations. Patient navigators provide culturally sensitive and individualized assistance to patients, especially those who may need additional support, to have access to needed medical information and care. As the field of patient navigation continues to evolve, opportunities exist for patient navigators to maximize their roles in supporting patients' interactions with their clinical care teams by further emphasizing and incorporating activities that effectively assess and address patients' communication needs. Further, expanded use of patient navigation can contribute to ongoing efforts to reduce health disparities and promote equity through facilitation of patient education, patient engagement, and improved patient–clinician communication.
Support Mobilization
Authors: Faw Meara H.
Published: September 2022

Social support is an essential communication process, promoting physical, mental, and social well‐being. However, not all social support is equally valued by support recipients, and not all support recipients have access to the types and amount of support they want from desired support providers. Support mobilization includes the behaviors that people use to try and achieve an optimal balance of social support in their broader network. Two areas of research outline different approaches to thinking about support mobilization: the support activation behaviors outlined in sensitive interaction systems theory, and the strategies detailed in support‐marshaling research. Both theories highlight the strategy and goal‐oriented nature of support mobilization, suggesting different approaches for considering the risks and potential outcomes of mobilizing support in direct or indirect ways, and, in the case of a support‐marshaling framework, how mobilization efforts extend not just to increase desired support but to manage unhelpful, undesirable support attempts as well.
Support Seeking and Provision
Authors: Kuang Kai
Published: September 2022

This entry introduces the concepts of support seeking and provision in health communication research and practice. Supportive communication is of critical importance in illness contexts. Individuals engage in verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors to elicit supportive actions from and offer aid to others. Support‐seeking and provision processes are by nature interactive and dyadic. Factors such as specific illness conditions, cultural differences, family communication patterns, and individual personality and gender can influence strategies used to seek or provide support. Supportive communication that takes place online represents unique characteristics and processes compared to those in face‐to‐face supportive interactions. Importantly, the outcomes of support seeking and provision can be either helpful or harmful. Future health communication research should continue to investigate and theorize the mechanisms of support‐seeking and provision processes, understand predictors and outcomes of supportive messages and interactions, and explore how these may differ depending on the unique health contexts under examination.
Facework and Politeness Theories
Authors: Romo Lynsey K. , Marr Chandler T. , Alvarez Cimmiaron F.
Published: September 2022

Face is an individual's desired public image. Because individuals have various public identities they wish to uphold simultaneously or in different circumstances, they possess both positive and negative face. Positive face is one's need for social desirability, while negative face is an individual's desire to be free from imposition. Communicators work to ensure they uphold their own and their communication partner's face during interactions. Yet, with multiple individuals communicating, all with their own face performances, it is inevitable that threats to an individual's face will occur, particularly in health‐related interactions. Individuals engage in facework, both preventive and corrective, to uphold face performances during interactions. Preventive facework is used to proactively mitigate face threats by avoiding face‐threatening acts, changing the topic or using disclaimers, or engaging in politeness. Politeness theory outlines specific strategies communicators can use to accomplish goals while minimizing face‐threatening acts. Corrective facework involves using avoidance, humor, apologies, and/or accounts (which include excuses and justifications) to remediate face threats. This entry details facework and politeness theories in the context of health communication.
Eye Tracking
Authors: Kessler Sabrina H.
Published: September 2022

Eye‐tracking methodologies are becoming a common research tool for those in the field of health communication research. The process‐tracking method allows researchers to collect an objective assessment of visual behavior. Eye movements and positions are seen as indicators of the uptake of visual information that provide insights into the cognitive processes underlying a wide variety of human health communication and information‐related behaviors. Most health communication studies using eye tracking were conducted in the USA, relied on remote/stationary eye trackers, used eye tracking mostly in combination with a survey, and had small sample sizes consisting mostly of university or high school students. The studies often analyzed the effect of stimuli on different dependent variables. The most used stimulus type was static (e.g., images or websites). The most frequently used dependent variable was attention. Attention is a crucial antecedent to the persuasive intent of many health‐related messages, studied by scholars seeking to understand how to promote healthy behavior.
Program Design and Evaluation
Authors: Neuhauser Linda
Published: September 2022

This entry provides an overview of issues, theories, and methods relevant to integrating program design and evaluation of health communication, and newer trends in this area. Theories/models and methods from many disciplines provide rich guidance in this area, including those from social sciences, humanities, biomedical sciences, sociotechnical sciences, business, and others. Traditional health communication programs have tended to be expert‐driven, focused on individual behavior, and evaluated using mixed social science methods. Newer approaches are more trans/interdisciplinary, more focused on community and societal conditions, more interactive, and more strongly engage end users and stakeholders in iterative program co‐design and co‐evaluation.
Qualitative Data Analysis Software (Dedoose, ATLAS, NVivo, MAXQDA)
Authors: Hart Tabitha , Achterman Peg
Published: September 2022

Qualitative data analysis is a rigorous, complex, iterative, nonlinear, and intellectually demanding method of discerning and describing emergent patterns in rich and non‐uniform qualitative data sets. Qualitative data analysis (QDA) software programs are designed to support the data analysis process by helping researchers to systematize and categorize electronic data sets, produce reports, and engage in collaborative research projects. Specific tasks that QDA software can help researchers to accomplish are creating and attaching codes to data; creating, using, and maintaining a codebook; changing code names; creating memos and linking files; viewing coded passages in context; transcribing data; and generating reports. Critical factors to take into consideration when selecting and purchasing QDA software are the project arrangements, data type, cost, usability, security, and durability. Some of the most popular QDA programs at this time are ATLAS.ti, Dedoose, MAXQDA, NVivo (formerly NUD*IST), TAMS Analyzer, and Transana.
Quantitative Data Analysis Software (SPSS, SAS, R, Python, STATA)
Authors: Pilny Andy , McAninch Kelly , Riles Julius
Published: September 2022

Quantitative data analysis software offers a convenient path into the world of descriptive and inferential statistics. Without it, metrics like means, sum of squares, covariances, and so on would have to be calculated by hand. A grim world indeed. Despite the proliferation of quantitative data analysis software programs, they are not all created equal and have different advantages and disadvantages. The purpose here is to introduce, compare, and contrast some of the most popular quantitative data analysis software programs available, particularly those of interest to health communication researchers. More specifically, this entry will focus on Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Statistical Analysis System (SAS), R, Python, and STATA.
Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
Authors: Keränen Lisa
Published: September 2022

The rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM) is a growing transdisciplinary field concerned with the study and practice of persuasion in matters relating to health and medicine. Practitioners hail primarily from English and composition, technical writing, and communication. RHM's relationship to health communication is variously conceived as a subfield, a distinct tradition, or as an allied area. RHM scholarship focuses on how language and symbols are oriented to audiences, contexts, uses, and genres; how rhetoric constitutes knowledge and identity in embodied, performative, and textual ways; and how rhetoric organizes thought and action, or knowledge and practice, in health and medicine. RHM research often employs methods of rhetorical analysis, although methodological flexibility and mixed‐methods approaches, both qualitative and quantitative, appear prominently. RHM's scholarly community is supported through an expanding set of conferences, publishing venues, and online platforms.
Survey Methods
Authors: Lane Derek R.
Published: September 2022

Survey research is the most frequently used method in the health and social sciences because it allows researchers to collect credible, accurate, and precise details about the characteristics of a specific population. Researchers use quantitative survey research to determine how large groups of people feel, think, and act. Health surveys are used to measure health status, health behavior, risk factors, and a range of health disparities that are correlated with obesity, substance use, tobacco use, and other health challenges. To trust generalizations made from the analysis of quantitative survey data, however, there are five conditions that must be met: (i) the sample must be representative and selected randomly, (ii) the response rate sufficient, (iii) the questions unbiased, (iv) the data collection procedures uniform, and (v) the data coding and analyses accurate. This entry describes each of these conditions before briefly summarizing the strengths and shortcomings of quantitative survey research.
Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses
Authors: Peterson Emily B. , Bylund Carma L.
Published: September 2022

Systematic reviews and meta‐analyses serve the important function of organizing and synthesizing previous research studies, providing a foundation for researchers to advance research. These reviews use explicit, accountable, and rigorous methods to answer a specific research question. This is done by a thorough examination of published studies, and a rigorous and explicit process of selecting studies for inclusion in the review based on a predetermined set of eligibility criteria. Synthesis for systematic reviews can include a thematic summary and/or statistically aggregating the results of the individual studies through a meta‐analysis. Many tools exist to help those interested in conducting systematic reviews and meta‐analyses. Scientific advancement occurs when studies systematically respond to and build upon the foundation of existing work; systematic reviews and meta‐analyses play an important role in this evolutionary research process.
Secure Messaging
Authors: Alpert Jordan M.
Published: September 2022

Both patients and healthcare professionals rely on technology to communicate with one another more than ever. Secure messaging, the asynchronous messaging function with electronic health records and patient portals, facilitates such communication. The use of secure messaging has dramatically increased because it improves patient satisfaction, is convenient, extends the in‐person visit, and provides a safe environment to discuss sensitive issues. However, clinicians are still reluctant to embrace the technology because they are not reimbursed for the time it takes to respond to patients' questions, and because they fear it will cause their workload to escalate. Patients are unsure about which types of messages are appropriate for secure messaging and have expressed the need for guidance and instruction. Research on the use of secure messaging has mainly focused on the primary care setting and chronic diseases like diabetes and cancer. When frequent communication between patients and clinicians is required, such as in diabetes and cancer, patients have preferred secure messaging to other forms of communication, like telephone calls. Patient‐centered communication in the application of secure messaging is important, as patients expect high levels of quality and authentic communication, just like they do during face‐to‐face interactions.
Telemedicine, History Of
Authors: Bashshur Rashid L. , Bashshur Mary J.
Published: September 2022

This entry provides a brief review of the historical origin and evolution of telemedicine, starting with the pioneering work of Nobel laureate Willem Einthoven, Dutch clinician and physiologist, in 1906, who demonstrated the feasibility of transmitting heart sounds over telephone lines. During the ensuing millennium, telemedicine has undergone several epochs of growth, retrenchment, and transformation. The cyclical trends and eventual persistence of telemedicine are explained by the intransigent problems of healthcare inequity, uneven access, cost inflation, and the promise of telemedicine to address them. Initial resistance to telemedicine reflected technical limitations and excessive cost of the infrastructure. In the United States, the role of government in supporting telemedicine has been discordant. There was a concern about large‐scale expansion in pent‐up demand for care once it became readily available and accessible through technology, which might threaten the stability of the trust fund supporting Medicare and Medicaid. However, these policies in Canada and several European countries were more consistent. The COVID‐19 pandemic changed the healthcare landscape, and telemedicine became widely used to sustain healthcare resources while protecting clinicians and patients from a highly infectious disease. Beyond the pandemic, telemedicine is likely to persist in one form or another as clinicians and patients worldwide have gained firsthand experience with this modality of delivering and receiving care, and the dependence on the same technology in all sectors of society.
Health Technology Assessment (
HTA
) Using
MAFEIP
(Monitoring and Assessment Framework for the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing)
Authors: Lupiáñez‐Villanueva Francisco , Folkvord Frans , Febrer Nuria , Gunderson Laura
Published: September 2022

Due to increasing healthcare costs worldwide, health technology assessment (HTA) is of great importance. HTA has used cost‐effectiveness analysis to assess the new health technologies and interventions within health systems. The Monitoring and Assessment Framework for the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (MAFEIP) is one of the tools used to conduct this type of assessment. The main objective of the MAFEIP tool is to estimate the outcomes of a large variety of social and technological innovations, by providing an early assessment of the likelihood that interventions will achieve their anticipated impact. In addition, MAFEIP also helps to identify the drivers of an intervention's effectiveness or efficiency in order to guide further design, development or evaluation. Therefore, MAFEIP represents a clear support to the decision‐making process for HTA. Given that healthcare costs are expected to continue increasing through the coming decades, it is now more urgent to have a clear understanding of which interventions and technological solutions are most effective and have the biggest impact, while also taking into account their relative costs.
Behavioral Journalism
Authors: de la Serna Ana X. , Burkey Brant
Published: September 2022

Behavioral journalism is a communication technique applied to health behavior change and health promotion. McAlister developed this model in the late 1970s, based on social cognitive theory and diffusion of innovations. The behavioral journalist, unlike other types of journalists, uses methods based on health behavior theories. Therefore, the entire process is based on a strong research foundation about the known theories, the specific behavior, and the target audience. Peer modeling is at the heart of behavioral journalism because the behavioral journalist writes stories where the character subject presents a detailed explanation of their process of adoption of a healthier behavior. The audience that consumes the news story is expected to identify with the struggles of the character subject. This leads the audience to increased self‐efficacy by learning about the possible solutions to common barriers of the health behavior change. Thus, the news consumer will be more likely to model the desired health behavior. Behavioral journalism has been used in diverse interventions including HIV prevention, violence prevention, and sun‐screen use.
Framing: Equivalency
Authors: Huang Yan , Wang Weirui , Yang Chun
Published: September 2022

This entry provides a brief review of the research on equivalence framing in health communication and persuasive message design. It introduces the origin of this concept – the prospect theory in decision research, the proposed psychological mechanisms underlying the relative effectiveness of gain–loss frames, and the frequently studied moderators for framing effects including the desirability of end‐states, regulatory focus, motivational systems, behavior type, and issue involvement. Equivalence framing offers a valuable tool for researchers to examine how message features influence message compliance and health behavior change. This line of research, however, has also received critiques due to several conceptual and operational shifts as it has been applied to health communication and persuasion. Nabi's emotional perspective and Nan's integrative framework provide conceptual maps for future investigations to better understand the psychological mechanisms and the situational conditions of framing effects.
Clinician–patient Communication with
LGBT
Patients
Authors: Baker Jonathan T.
Published: September 2022

Current health communication research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patient–clinician communication is characterized by an emphasis on LGBT identity disclosure, LGBT health‐relevant information disclosure, and clinician knowledge on LGBT healthcare. LGBT patient–clinician communication research offers a theoretical commitment to studying the LGBT patient–clinician relationship that develops communication theory and provides avenues for communication‐based interventions that address LGBT health disparities.
Clinician–Patient Communication: Intercultural
Authors: Schouten Barbara C.
Published: September 2022

Intercultural clinician–patient encounters pose unique challenges for delivering good quality healthcare communication, which contributes to ongoing health inequalities for ethnic minority and migrant patients. To mitigate these challenges, a good grasp of relevant antecedents, processes, and outcomes of intercultural clinician–patient communication is needed. Among the antecedents known to be related to communication difficulties are cultural differences in cognitions around illness and health as well as cultural differences in values. In addition, for ethnic minority and migrant patients without sufficient proficiency in a country's dominant language, the language barrier poses a significant threat to access to healthcare and quality of healthcare communication. These communication difficulties subsequently result in a host of negative outcomes, including diminished patient satisfaction, mutual understanding, and adherence to treatment plans. Health communication scholars have researched how several communication strategies impact the intercultural clinician–patient communication process and its outcomes. In particular, eHealth and mHealth interventions offer unique possibilities to tailor both content and format of health communication to the needs of individual patients, thereby adopting a culturally sensitive communication approach in which both culture‐specific needs and individual differences within cultural groups are acknowledged.
Medical Tourism
Authors: Crooks Valorie A. , Jin Ki Nam
Published: September 2022

When patients travel abroad for medical care that is privately paid for and arranged, they are participating in medical tourism. The procedures sought by medical tourists are varied and can include dental and cosmetic procedures along with major surgeries. An ever‐increasing number of countries are looking to enter the medical tourism market or enhance their medical tourism sectors through strategic trade initiatives. Many stakeholder groups play key roles in the practice of medical tourism, including: international patients, medical tourism facilities and their workers, and the friends and family members who often accompany medical tourists abroad. There are many contested aspects of medical tourism and its associated practices. Among such concerns are: whether or not medical tourism benefits destination countries and their economies and if such benefits outweigh the health inequities that are created or exacerbated by treating international patients; ethico‐legal dimensions, including aspects such as malpractice coverage and informed consent; and how the transnational practice of medical tourism disrupts continuity of care. Future advances in technology platforms such as electronic medical records, cloud computing, and blockchain may facilitate communication and information exchange and thus overall continuity of care in medical tourism.
Communicative Constitution Model of Organizations
Authors: Schoeneborn Dennis , Vásquez Consuelo
Published: September 2022

The notion of the “communicative constitution of organization” (CCO) is at the center of a growing theoretical development within the field of organizational communication studies. CCO scholarship is based on the idea that organizations are created and maintained in and through communication. CCO scholarship is presented with regard to its main underlying premises and major theoretical approaches, and implications for health communication research.
Electronic Health Records
Authors: Overton Barbara Cook
Published: September 2022

An electronic health record (EHR) is an electronic version of a patient's medical history. EHRs are created and managed by clinicians, but many EHR systems are neither interconnected nor interoperable. The inability to share data among clinicians contradicts purported benefits of using EHRs, namely, improved communication and information sharing leading ostensibly to better health outcomes for patients. Along with cost and usability, interoperability concerns help explain why the healthcare industry has been slow embracing EHRs. Organizational changes brought by EHR adoptions can disrupt workflow patterns, alter clinicians' interactions, and erode organizational identity.
Health Professions/Occupations
Authors: Barbour Joshua B. , Pierce Casey S. , Rolison Shelbey L.
Published: September 2022

Health communication scholars investigate health occupations and professions to provide recommendations that benefit workers and their constituents. This research spans clinical, administrative, governmental, and technological contexts of work. Health work exists within and in response to broader institutions of control, and communication helps bridge, define, and push back on its relationship to them. This entry provides a summary of how health occupations and professions have been studied within health communication scholarship. Studies of health workers have focused especially on work in clinical settings, particularly on how membership in, attachment to, and beliefs relevant to occupations influence their work. Although much healthcare work and especially those occupations studied by health communication scholars are generally considered professions, studies have also illuminated professionalizing processes in which workers negotiate and defend their claims to specific knowledge, what counts as the work of the occupation, and the occupation's legitimacy. Research topics include the connections between occupational and organizational processes, professional identity and identification, occupational and professional outcomes, interprofessional communication, and the influence of occupational factors in technology and organizational change processes.
Organizational Whistleblowers
Authors: Baglia Jay
Published: September 2022

Whistleblowing is a health communication topic that has been covered extensively in ethics, health policy, journalism, law, and nursing journals but not as much from the health communication, health humanities, and medical anthropology fields. As a concept of potential interest to health communication scholars, whistleblowing (and whistleblowers) raise important questions regarding organizational culture, decision making, medical hierarchy, medical error and abuse, and interpersonal and relational disclosure. Whistleblowing constitutes what is known as prosocial behavior, or behavior that tends to benefit others. Some prosocial behavior, like whistleblowing, also leads to decreasing, discouraging, or eliminating undesirable behavior. As a result, whistleblowing is frequently aligned with activism. Models, processes, and theories are included in this entry along with well‐known historical and contemporary examples of whistleblowing, as well as suggestions for future research.
Professional Identity in Healthcare Organizations
Authors: Barrett Ashley K.
Published: September 2022

Working professionals find meaning in their work and consider their professions as significant markers of identity. Healthcare organizations represent complex and challenging environments in that they are comprised of a collection of distinctly specialized and interdependent clinicians who must unremittingly and carefully coordinate with one another to achieve patient‐centered care. Communication plays a critical role in healthcare professionals' identity construction and how professional, organizational, and institutional logics and socialization construct clinicians' identity and perceptions of their work and job roles. Future directions for the study of identity in healthcare organizations are offered, most notably within the realm of interprofessional healthcare teams and productive collaboration.
Communication Privacy Management Theory
Authors: Durham Wesley T.
Published: September 2022

This entry serves as an overview of communication privacy management (CPM). Developed by Sandra Petronio in the 1990s and early 2000s, originally as communication boundary management, CPM serves as an important framework for understanding how and why humans reveal and/or conceal private information. In this entry, the tenets and principles of CPM are introduced, along with how scholars have applied the theory in health communication contexts.