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Background Reading

These resources can help you figure out your topic and/or help you find terms related to your topic that you can use to find articles.

Encyclopedia of Health and Behavior, especially entries like:
Adoption of Health Behavior | Self-Efficacy | Health Belief Model

Encyclopedia of Epidemiology, especially:
Health Communication | Targeting and Tailoring | Health Behavior

Other resources of (potential) interest:
Encyclopedia of Health & Aging
Encyclopedia of Social Psychology
Encyclopedia of Social Theory
Oxford handbook of health psychology R726.7 .O94 2011

Journal Articles
Tip: The terms that work well in one database may not work as well in another, so take the time to experiment with your wording to get the best results. (See below for an example list of general terms.)

Start with Primo, the library's new single search tool. See our How does Primo searching work? guide for details about the types of resources you can find.

Definitely try
Communication & Mass Media Complete
Academic Search Complete

Potentially helpful
Health Source: Nursing/Academic
Consumer Health Complete
Health Source: Consumer
PsycInfo
SocIndex
Annual Review of Public Health
Internet: What's it good for?
You will usually figure out if you need to look for these things as you read your articles.
  • Updated statistics if what's mentioned in an article seems old
  • Organization reports and studies (e.g. CDC, NIH, WHO)
General example terms for health communication

(quotation marks mean it's a subject term from a database)

"Communication in medicine"
"Communication in health education"
"Health education"
"Health education research"
"Health risk communication"
"Health promotion"
"Health promotion services"
"Patient education"
"Public health communication"
"Mass media -- Social aspects"
"Mass media & public health"
"Health behavior"
"Attitudes toward health"
"Television advertising effectiveness"
"Advertising effectiveness"
"Health literacy"
"Public opinion on vaccination"
"Science in the press"
"Science in mass media"   
"Consumer attitudes"
"Marketing -- United States -- Social aspects"
"Persuasion (Rhetoric)"
"Decision making"
"Drug abuse prevention"
"Communication of technical information"
"Health counseling"
Health information