How should we communicate about health risk?
Roxanne Parrott

The study of health communication focuses on discourse about being well and well-being. The strategic design and dissemination of messages with potential for positive effects on health and well-being has been the focus of Professor Roxanne Parrott’s research program for nearly two decades. In pursuit of answering the above question, she has focused on three primary issues, advancing a model for an ecological approach to health communication that encompasses insights about the role of language, lay epistemologies, and health policy in health message design and dissemination.

Parrott, R., Monahan, J., Ainsworth, S., & Steiner, C. (1998). Communicating to farmers about skin cancer: A behavioral adaptation model. Human Communication Research, 24, 386-409.

How does language influence?

By whatever modality communication about health reaches us, language will contribute to the persuasive outcomes of the message. Most recently, Roxanne Parrott has approached the effects of language for health communication through systematic consideration of the role language has in outcomes for evidence about health risk. In view of an increasing trend for communicating about health through the use of visual forms of evidence, ranging from bar charts and risk ladders to photographs and maps, her research has considered the effects of visual form for perceptions of message quality as well as comprehension. In turn, she examines effects on behavioral health outcomes including self and response efficacy. An overarching framework relating the importance of visual to verbal forms considers the role of language in essentializing race, genes, place, or other single determinants of health. Consistent with a focus on visual forms, previous research has also considered nonverbal behavior and audience characteristics to explain exposure to and effects of language use on message and behavioral health outcomes. This research has focused on behaviors, beliefs, or message source as contributors to understanding how language influences. Examples of this line of research can be found in the following published articles.

Parrott, R., Silk, K., Dorgan, K., Condit, C., & Harris, T. (2005). Risk comprehension and judgments of statistical evidentiary appeals: When a picture is not worth a thousand words. Human Communication Research, 31, 423-452.

Parrott, R., Silk, K., Dillow, M., Krieger, J., Harris, T., & Condit, T. (2005). The development and validation of tools to assess perceptions of genetic discrimination and genetic racism. Journal of the National Medical Association, 97, 980-991.

Condit, C., & Parrott, R., (2004). Perceived levels of health risk associated with linguistic descriptors and type of disease. Science Communication, 26, 152-161.

Condit, C. M., Parrott, R. L., Bates, B. R., Bevan, J., & Achter, P. J. (2004). Exploration of the impact of messages about genes and race on lay attitudes. Clinical Genetics, 66, 402-408.

Condit, C. M., Parrott, R. L., Harris, T. M., Lynch, J., & Dubriwny, T. (2004). The role of ‘genetics’ in popular understandings of race in the United States. Public Understanding of Science, 13, 249-272.

Robinson, J., Silk, K, Parrott, R., Steiner, C., Morris, S., & Honeycutt, C. (2004). Healthcare providers’ sun-protection promotion and at-risk clients’ skin-cancer-prevention outcomes. Preventive Medicine, 38, 251-257.

Parrott, R., Parrott, B., & Clark, P. (2003). Comic-book heroes battle a tough enemy in AIDS: Messages about transmission and risk (pp. 134-154). In L.K. Fuller (ed.), Media-mediated AIDS. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.

Duggan, A.P., & Parrott, R.L. (2001). Physicians’ nonverbal rapport-building behaviors and patients’ talk about the subjective component of illness. Human Communication Research, 27, 299-311.

Egbert, N., & Parrott, R. (2001). Self-efficacy and rural women’s performance of breast and cervical cancer detection practices. Journal of Health Communication, 6, 219-234.

Jones, K.O., Parrott, R., & Lemieux, R. (2001). Effects of rural farmers’ exposure to radio messages about sun protection. Journal of Radio Studies, 8, 411-424.

Parrott, R., & Duggan, A. (1999). Using coaches as role models of sun protection for youth: Georgia’s “Got Youth Covered” project. Journal of Applied Communication, 27, 107-120.

Parrott, R., Wilson, K., Buttram, C., Jones, K., & Steiner, C. (1999). Migrant farmworkers’ access to pesticide protection and information: Cultivando buenos habitos campaign development. Journal of Health Communication, 4, 49-64.

Slaten, D., Parrott, R., & Steiner, C. (1999). Readability of skin cancer prevention brochures targeting parents of young children. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 40, 997-998.

Parrott, R., & Steiner, C. (1998). The role of Georgia physicians in control of farmers' skin cancer. Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, 87, 109-111.

Parrott, R., Lewis, D., Jones, K, Steiner, C., & Goldenhar, L.(1998). Identifying feed and seed stores as a site to promote skin cancer control: A social marketing approach to agricultural health communication. Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health, 4, 149-158.

Parrott, R. (1994). Clarifying boundary conditions and extending the motives for nonimmediate language use: A proposed model and test using physicians' role experience and gender. Discourse Processes, 17,353-376.

How do lay epistemologies influence?

One persistent trend in health communication research has been the focus on public health communication and medical interaction to the neglect of self-management approaches to health. Roxanne Parrott has emphasized the importance of a self-management model of health communication, which emphasizes the individual interacting with informal systems of care, relying on self, family and friends to address responsibility for health and health care. In this realm, lay epistemologies form the framework for communication and decision-making about health. Examples of this line of research include the following articles.

Condit, C., Parrott, R., & Harris, T. (In press). Lay people’s resources for dealing with behavior genetics. In E. Parens (Ed.), Behavior genetics. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Parrott, R., Silk, K., Weiner, J., Condit, C., Harris, T., & Bernhardt, J. (2004). Deriving lay models of uncertainty about genes’ role in illness causation to guide communication about human genetics. Journal of Communication, 54(1), 105-122.

Parrott, R., Silk, K., Krieger, J. R., Harris, T., & Condit, C. (2004). Behavioral health outcomes associated with religious faith and media exposure about human genetics. Health Communication, 16(1), 29-46.

Parrott, R., & Lemieux, R. (2003). When the worlds of work and wellness collide: the role of familial support on skin cancer control. The Journal of Family Communication, 3, 95-106.

Parrott, R., Silk, K., & Condit, C. (2003). Diversity in lay perceptions of the sources of human traits: Genes, environments, and personal behaviors. Social Science & Medicine, 56, 1099-1109.

Duncan, V., & Parrott, R., & Silk, K. (2001). African American women’s perceptions of the role of genetics in breast cancer risk. American Journal of Health Studies, 17, 50-58.

How do health policies influence?

Communication theory and practice emphasizes ethical decision-making. In the realm of strategic health communication, the scope for translating prescriptions for health into messages depends on health policy. Health policies frame decisions about what research will be funded and thus contribute to the knowledge base available for communicating about health. Roxanne Parrott’s research has considered this as a boundary condition to guide planning efforts related to designing health messages. Thus, one focus of Parrott’s research is to identify implicit assumptions relating to health policy and examine how they influence health communication. Examples of work in this area include the following publications.

Achter, P., Parrott, R., & Silk, K. (2005). Minority opinion in human genetic research. Politics and the Life Sciences, 23, 60-66.

Parrott, R., Egbert, N., Anderton, J., & Sefcovic, E. (2002). Enlarging the role of environment as a social influence construct in health campaigns (pp. 633-660). In M. Pfau & J. Dillard (eds.) Persuasion: Theories and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Parrott, R., & Condit, C. M. (1996). Evaluating women's health messages: A resource book. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Parrott, R. L., Kahl, M., & Maibach, E. (1995). Enabling individuals to be healthy: Policy and administrative practices at a crossroad. In E. Maibach & R. Parrott's (Eds.), Designing health messages: Approaches from communication theory and public health practice (pp. 270-283). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.