Empowerment

This entry provides an overview of the concept of empowerment in health communication, introducing the most established definitions of empowerment, its dimensions, and domains. In the health communication field, individual and collective empowerment are commonly discussed. Individual empowerment is presented in its two main domains: (i) empowerment that focuses on individuals' personal health outcomes and their health-related personal transformation (i.e., patient empowerment and self-empowerment), and (ii) empowerment that occurs in realms of the health professional–patient relationship (i.e., functional and dysfunctional empowerment). Compared to the individual dimension of psychological empowerment, collective empowerment has received less attention in health communication research. However, this entry demonstrates the importance of collective empowerment and its crucial role in the development of collective bottom-up engagements of individuals or groups interested in health-related topics. The entry concludes with a critical reflection of empowerment and the related concept of disempowerment.