健康传播作为传播学的新兴分支,因其与个人生活的紧密关联和重大社会影响力而 受到广泛关注。但目前国内的健康传播研究还停留在描述现象、个案讨论和概括此领域 宏观特征的初级阶段。本文以健康传播研究的理论探索与创新为主旨,探讨了如何在理 论关照下开展健康传播研究,探索健康信息传播过程中、健康行为发展过程中的重要 影响因素;考察人与信息、人与人、人与社会的互动,以及健康信息传播带来的人的观 念、态度、行为的变化。本文详细阐述了理论模型与实测模型的构建及其对健康传播研 究的重要意义。本文主张健康传播研究要致力于理论指导下人的观念和行为的探索;致 力于研究课题、方法、研究结果的创新;强调这类考察与探索应该是具体的、可观察、 可测量的,通过考察事物间的重要关系(变量)而实现的。本文认为健康传播研究成果 需要对理解此领域的重要研究问题、对理解健康传播过程以及个人与社会的健康传播行 为贡献新的知识。

Health communication as a sub-area of communication research has received growing attention because of its close relationship with personal life and its significant social impact. However the current research on health communication in China is still in the preliminary stage, and scholars tend to describe phenomena of health communication, analyze individual cases, and summarize the general characteristics of health communication. Therefore, we argue that the empirical studies should be informed by related theoretical framework, and explore the important factors that influence dissemination of health information and health- related behaviors; identify the changes in attitudes, behavior and moral values brought by health communication and analyze the interactions among individuals and society. Health communication research should apply innovative theories and research methods to enhance the understanding of the impact of psychological and social factors on perception, attitude and behaviors relating to health communication. This article explains how the theoretical and measurement models could be used for specific research project of health communication and provides examples of theory application to the studies of health communication. The outcomes of health communication are expected to answer key research questions arising in the process and contribute new knowledge to the field.