Embodied Experience and Health Communication among Vulnerable Populations

A Review of Panel3 at MHM2026

Abstract

This conference report provides an analytical synthesis of five studies presented in Panel 3, “Bodily Experiences and Health Communication among Vulnerable Populations: From Qualitative to Quantitative Approaches (Part I),” at the 9th “Medicine, Humanity and Media” (MHM 2026) Health Communication International Conference and PhD Symposium. The five studies examined health communication across diverse populations and contexts, including AI-mediated intergenerational communication, online social support among people with eating disorders, social media health practices among migrant workers with pneumoconiosis, cancer-prevention self-efficacy in resource-scarce settings, and caregiver-mediated communication of autistic embodied experience. Although differing in theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches, the studies collectively drew attention to several interconnected issues: the articulation and mediation of bodily experience, the role of digital technologies and social relationships in shaping health communication, the structural conditions that enable or constrain health-related action, and the representation and agency of vulnerable populations. The panel discussion further highlighted shared theoretical, methodological, and ethical challenges, particularly those concerning conceptual clarity, theory–method alignment, research design, sampling, use of empirical materials, and the representation of vulnerable groups. Taken together, the studies demonstrate the value of examining health communication not solely as the transmission of information, but as a socially and structurally embedded process involving embodiment, mediation, support, representation, and agency.