ABSTRACT

Health communication, both in public health field, as well as in the profit/non-profit organizations, is an area which is rapidly developing and increasingly gaining importance. The aim of the study is to define health communication as a developing field in Turkey; to display the historical background, conditions that support its development, the framework, related studies and the necessity for a paradigm in this interdisciplinary field; and to put forward sugges-tions for future work. This study examines the literature in health communication and presents a compilation about the subject. Health communication is developing multi-dimensionally both by academic work and practice. Health communication is playing an increasingly important role in disease prevention and control. While the field of health communication expands, an interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial in order to contribute to the expansion of paradigm. The work conducted by the researchers from the same field is not sufficient to facilitate the progress of paradigm. A medical point of view will enrich the research of non-health professionals, whereas communication experts will contribute to the medical point of view in enlarging the framework of health communication studies.