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A spectrum of approaches to health information interaction: From avoidance to verification
Author(s) -
Costello Kaitlin L.,
Veinot Tiffany C.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.24310
Subject(s) - health care , seekers , information seeking behavior , health information , information behavior , variety (cybernetics) , coping (psychology) , information seeking , psychology , internet privacy , nursing , applied psychology , medicine , computer science , clinical psychology , human–computer interaction , artificial intelligence , information retrieval , political science , law , economics , economic growth
Abstract People respond to illness in a range of ways, and take different approaches to engaging with health information throughout the course of their illness. This study describes and explains the variety of approaches to health information interactions made by patients on hemodialysis. Ethnographic observations (156 hours) were conducted in three hemodialysis clinics, and semistructured interviews about health information were held with 28 patients. Demographic data were collected. Data were analyzed qualitatively. We found a spectrum of five approaches to health information: avoiders , who close themselves off from health information; receivers , who encounter information in the dialysis clinic but do not seek it out; askers , who only pose questions about health to their healthcare providers but otherwise do not seek; seekers , who actively look for health information both in and out of the clinic; and verifiers , who seek information and triangulate it among multiple sources. Trust in healthcare providers and coping sociality differed across approaches. The findings indicate that health information should be provided to patients using strategies tailored to their preferences and existing approaches to information interaction.