Changes and New Trends in Health Communication

Health communication can be considered in terms of different groups such as communication of healthcare professionals with each other, patient-healthcare worker communication, patient-patient communication and patient relatives communication with each other. Communication is the primary tool in ensuring health literacy and disseminating effective health information to the wider audience. Effective health communication raises awareness about health problems, risks and solutions; influences and strengthens individuals' attitudes. All mass media are used within the scope of health education to develop and adopt healthy living habits in society in order to improve health. The dizzying developments and changes in communication technologies have diversified and enriched the ways to obtain more information and support about health problems. The transition from monologue to dialogue in the internet field has caused the transformation from one-way information transmission to dynamic, multi-faceted interactive and discussions. Thus, the period began in which not only consuming but also producing users took part. While this has improved those who use social networks, it has also made it difficult to control health information. The coexistence of the media's potential to generate negative behavior as well as the possibilities and capacity to develop positive health behaviors also constitutes a paradoxical situation. Individuals who try to collect information about diseases and treatment methods by using new media tools sometimes risk their health with false information. In addition, the communication between the different groups mentioned above through forums on online platforms takes on a remarkable new form in terms of patient-patient communication. In this context, the aim of the study is to discuss the transformation of patient-patient communication on online platforms within the framework of the literature.