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The Importance of Social Cues for Discretionary Health Services Utilization: The Case of Infertility[Note 2. Please direct correspondence to: Arthur L. Greil, Professor of ...]
Author(s) -
Greil Arthur L.,
Shreffler Karina M.,
Johnson Katherine M.,
McQuillan Julia,
SlausonBlevins Kathleen
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/soin.12000
Subject(s) - infertility , social psychology , psychology , health services , variance (accounting) , stigma (botany) , business , medicine , environmental health , pregnancy , psychiatry , population , genetics , accounting , biology
Infertility is a discretionary health condition; although it carries with it important life course implications, treatment is rarely necessary for health reasons. Sociological theories of medical help‐seeking emphasize demographic factors, perceived need, and enabling conditions in health services utilization, but we find that social cues are also strongly associated with health services utilization for infertility. Adjusted for conventional predictors of medical help‐seeking, several social cue indicators have significant associations with utilization, including having friends and family with children, perceiving infertility stigma, and having a partner and/or family member who encourages treatment. Perceived need accounts for the largest portion of the variation in utilization. Enabling conditions explain less of the variance than social cues. Social cues should be especially important for discretionary health services utilization. Studies of service utilization for discretionary health conditions should explicitly incorporate a range of measures of social cues into their models.