The increased attention currently being paid to women's reproductive health issues has produced a corresponding interest in the role that communication plays in promoting better health care. Groundbreaking and comprehensive, this book is the first systematic examination of the major types and forms of messages about women's reproductive health - medical, social scientific and public - and the degree to which these messages compare with and contradict each other. Within the broad framework of communication, a range of women's health issues are examined in this book from political, historical, technological and feminist perspectives. The issues examined include: abortion; infertility; drug and alcohol use in pregnancy; childbirth; AIDS; menstruation and menopause.

"Chapter overviews, subheadings, and summaries facilitate a quick reading and review for graduate students and busy professionals in public health, the social sciences, communication, and related health policy-making fields."

--Academic Library Book Review

How do you design an effective health campaign message? Designing Health Messages explores this question from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The authors, all well-known for cutting-edge research in their field, demonstrate the necessity of basing message design decisions on appropriate theories of human behavior and communication effectiveness by synthesizing and integrating knowledge and insights from communication and health behavior change. Part I covers theory-driven approaches and includes content and linguistic considerations, the role of fear in content, and using positive affect. Part II discusses audience-centered strategies and looks at the "America Responds to AIDS" campaign and the Cancer Communication's "5 a Day for Better Health" program. This comprehensive volume concludes with recent developments and policy and administrative practices for health message design.

A much-needed book, Designing Health Messages is an indispensable resource and an essential aid for professors, students, and professionals in communication, specifically mass communication, and public health.

"This book would make a strong addition to a graduate-level course on health communication. With complementary reading to broaden students'' knowledge of the core theories and empirical research applied by these authors to message design, this book would enhance students'' capacity to link health communication theory and practice."

--Health Policy and Planning