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Communication and Cultural Competence 155

educators is to serve as a resource person (NCHEC, 2007). Communicating how to
avoid health risks is therefore an essential role of health educators. Health risk com-
munication is a two - way process that involves the health educator delivering a mes-
sage to an interested party about the nature, significance, and management of the risk

and that party receiving the message and ultimately using the information it provides
for decision making about disease prevention, health protection, health promotion,
and health maintenance. Both the health educator and the intended audience have
responsibilities and high stakes in the avoidance of health risks. The health educator
provides the health information and the clients need to comprehend the information to
make informed decisions about their health. The communication must be a two - way
process for any meaningful, positive health outcome to occur. It is the duty of health
educators to pass along health risk communication as new data and research arise.
Health educators may discuss risks one on one with a client or they may provide infor-
mation through the mass media, which results in communicating with a community
(Nicholson, 1999). For example, recently there have been numerous commercials tell-
ing people of warnings about and recalls of pharmaceutical products (such as Vioxx,
an analgesic pain medication) due to the availability of new research and data on the
adverse health effects of these products (for an example, visit www.vioxxdrugrecall
.com ). A health educator aware of such recall or warning information might discuss
the risks in the use of such a product. The ultimate decision is for the client to make.
The health educator just assists in providing available science - laden information.
Additionally, the health educator can direct the client in enriching her health by pro-
moting a better quality of life for her and preventing disease occurrence.
In communicating personal health (health of the individual) information, the

health educator must be mindful of the influence of cultural factors on his or her
client ’ s knowledge base, attitude, and behavior. Communicating personal health infor-
mation must result in changes in the individual ’ s belief system. Knowledge and atti-
tude changes alone will not transpose into a behavioral change. In order to change a
personal health behavior, a person must have motivation to change (Glanz, Rimer, &
Lewis, 2002). This has been demonstrated through the stages of the health behavior
change model known as the transtheoretical model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983;

Prochaska, DiClemente, & Norcross, 1992). This model identifi es five stages that can
be targeted to change a personal health behavior: precontemplation, contemplation,
preparation, action, and maintenance. These stages of behavioral change are fully dis-
cussed in any general health education textbook.
Health educators are better able to motivate an individual and reduce a risk when
they are able to determine which stage the person is in. For example, if a person is in the
precontemplation stage, then he does not have any intention of changing within the next
six months. If this is the case, having a health educator discuss with him the potential
risks of not changing his behavior may move him along to the contemplation stage.
Sometimes people need just a little push to get started. The health educator can apply
communication strategies to give a person the little push so needed to get him started on
the behavioral change path.

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