Staff: Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, PhD, MPH
Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, PhD, MPH
chouws@mail.nih.gov
240-276-6954
Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, PhD, MPH, is a Program Director in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB) of the Behavioral Research Program (BRP) at NCI. A prolific health communication scholar with over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Chou has led a number of NIH initiatives on the impact of the evolving communication landscape on public health and cancer control. Her research interests include social media, health misinformation, health literacy, and end-of-life cancer care. Trained as a sociolinguist, she has expertise in qualitative and mixed methods analyses of health care and online interactions. She has led several large NIH initiatives on the impact of changing information landscape on health communication, including funding initiatives on social media and substance use and addiction.
Dr. Chou's current research centers on addressing distrust and health misinformation and fostering relationship-centered communication. She has served as an editor for the American Journal of Public Health theme issue on misinformation and for the Journal of Communication in Healthcare on an issue on the Science of Trust.
Dr. Chou holds MS and PhD degrees in Linguistics from Georgetown University, an Interdisciplinary Master of Public Health from UC Berkeley, Bachelor of Art in Music (piano performance) from Santa Clara University, and completed a postdoctoral Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at NCI.
Current and/or past BRP mentors include Wendy Nelson.
Current and/or past BRP mentees include Emily Peterson, Carolyn Reyes-Guzman and Neha Trivedi.
Research Areas
- Social media
- Palliative care and goals of care communication
- Patient-provider communication
- Qualitative and mixed methods health research
- Health literacy
- Global cancer control research
- Health-related misinformation
Selected Publications and Presentations
- Chou WS, Gaysynsky A. A relationship-centered approach to addressing mistrust. J Commun Healthc 2023 Dec; 16(4):320-323.
- Sylvia Chou WY, Gaysynsky A, Cappella JN. Where We Go From Here: Health Misinformation on Social Media. Am J Public Health 2020 Oct; 110(S3):S273-S275.
- Chou WS, Oh A, Klein WMP. Addressing Health-Related Misinformation on Social Media. JAMA 2018 Dec 18; 320(23):2417-2418.
- Chou WY, Prestin A, Kunath S. Obesity in social media: a mixed methods analysis. Transl Behav Med 2014 Sep; 4(3):314-23.
- Chou WS, Hamel LM, Thai CL, Debono D, Chapman RA, Albrecht TL, Penner LA, Eggly S. Discussing prognosis and treatment goals with patients with advanced cancer: A qualitative analysis of oncologists' language. Health Expect 2017 Oct; 20(5):1073-1080.
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