Elements and principles of a strategic communication approach to health promotion in a multicultural context

Health communication projects are a key instrument in disease prevention and alleviation, as well as in health promotion and education in a broader sense, but only to the extent that such efforts are grounded in a thorough understanding of the general context of the health issue concerned and if developed in concert with other instruments and aspects of health care. Such a complex undertaking calls for a strategic and integrated approach involving many different types of expertise and research. This article briefly introduces a broad model for strategic health communication planning that is firmly grounded in the issue of health care at large. The focus then narrows to a discussion of certain aspects of health communication planning in a multicultural environment. To this end, some concrete suggestions are provided to assist policymakers, fieldworkers and researchers in evaluating or setting up effective communications in a health context