Communication Public Health: An Integration of Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology, and Public Health

Health care is advancing toward a collaborative and integrative approach that promotes general health and wellness while addressing health inequities through the consideration of broader social and economic factors that influence the well-being of the entire population. Recently, there has been growing evidence of public health concept applications in fields related to speech, language, and hearing. However, there is an outstanding need to explicitly define the intersection of public health, including prevention and health promotion, and the discipline of communication sciences and disorders (CSD) across the areas of education, clinical practice, research, and policy. The authors propose a definition for this intersection using the new term communication public health.

This tutorial provides guidance on how to conceptualize communication public health and invites refinement and expansion of the intersection between public health and CSD. Because readers are experts in CSD, this tutorial aims to supplement existing knowledge with information on public health to achieve three main objectives: (a) increase knowledge of the application of public health concepts among speech, language, hearing, and related professionals (SLHP+); (b) introduce the concept of communication public health; and (c) discuss the relevance of communication public health across domains within CSD. The authors utilize the socioecological model to provide examples of applications.

The concept of communication public health is proposed as the collaborative area of CSD and public health, which encompasses prevention and promotion of equity in communication health through individual-, community-, and population-level efforts. The goals of communication public health are achieved through applications of public health principles in CSD education, clinical practice, research, and policy.

Communication public health defines an area of collaboration between public health and CSD in which SLHP+ can apply public health concepts to both advance communication health and address health disparities.