[Effective health communication: Foundations, barriers, and success factors from a communication science perspective]

Communication highly influences what people think, feel, and decide about their health. This article discusses important barriers and success factors for effective communication in health contexts from the perspective of health communication, a subdiscipline of communication science. It focusses on aspects that are often not sufficiently addressed in our everyday communication: the degree of target group orientation, the role of attention processes, the variety of possible negative effects, the process character of individuals' health behavior changes, and social influences. We conclude the article with a plea for a better evidence-basing of health-related communication processes.