THE TELEPHONE AS A COMMUNICATION MEDIUM FOR HEALTH-EDUCATION

The telephone is being widely used by the private sector as a communic ation medium for understanding and influencing consumer behavior. Coin ciding with the growth of telephone use in the private sector is the e xpansion of telephone use in health care to include complex health pro motion and disease prevention interventions aimed at initiating and ma intaining health-related behavioral changes. While several studies hav e evaluated the impact of telephone interventions on a wide range of h ealth behaviors, no published reports synthesizing current knowledge a bout using the telephone as a communication medium for health educatio n were identified. In this article, the authors therefore (1) examine recent applications of telephone use in health education by describing three example interventions, (2) outline key features and alternative s in conceptualizing and designing health education using the telephon e, (3) review advantages and disadvantages of using the telephone for health education, and (4) discuss implications for health education pr actice and research.