Attributes of Effective Health Communication

Accuracy: The content is valid and without errors of fact, interpretation, or judgement.

Availability: The content (whether targeted messageing or other information) is delivered or placed where the audience can access it. Placement varies according to audience, message complexity, and purpose, ranging from inter-personal and social networks to billboards and mass transit signs to prime-time TV or radio, to public kiosks (print or electronic), and to the Internet.

Balance: Where appropriate, the content presents the benefits and risks of potential actions or recognizes different and valid perspectives on the issue.

Cultural Competence: The design, implementation, and evaluation process that accounts for special issues for select population groups (for example, ethnic, racial, and linguistic) and also educational levels and disability.

Evidence Base: Relevant scientific evidence that has undergone comprehensive review and rigorous analysis to formulate practice guidelines, performance measures, review criteria, and technology assesments for telehealth applications.

Reach: The content gets to or is available to the largest possible number of people in the target population.

Reliability: The source of the content is credible, and the content itself is kept up to date.

Repetition: The delivery of and access to the content is continually repeated over time, both to reinforce the impact with a given audience and to reach new generations.

Timeliness: The content is provided or available when the audience is most receptive to, or in need of, the specific information.

Understandability: The reading or language level and format (including multimedia) are appropriate for the specific audience.

Source: Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion