“I Try to Take Care of It Myself.” How Rural Women Search for Health Information

Abstract

Rural living poses special challenges (and opportunities) for the significant health information intermediary role that women enact. The authors describe interviews with 40 women living in a rural, medically underserved county in south-western Ontario, Canada, who discussed their information-seeking experiences and the strategies used to find information about a chronic health concern or an acute medical problem. The women's stories reveal that they define health very broadly and that their information seeking is influenced by contextual factors, such as rural living and gender roles, that interplay with their self-reliance, health literacy, and the availability and willingness of others in professional and non-professional roles to give support within relationships of care. The authors discuss themes emerging from the interviews in connection with the apparent mismatch between women's lived realities and the policy assumptions supporting the development of e-health strategies for providing health information to people living in rural and remote communities.

Internet information and medical consultations: Experiences from patients’ and physicians’ perspectives

“…In return, patients have to be willing and able to introduce their information in the consultation and to cooperate with their physicians. Patients' health literacy therefore plays a crucial role in this capability [10,22].…”

“…However, there are also studies indicating that consultations could be disempowering if physicians refuse to discuss health-related Internet information with patients [10,12,22]. It therefore seems crucial to make sure that the consultation plays a positive role in the process of empowerment of patients.…”

Health Information-Seeking Behaviors Among Classically Trained Singers

“…4 These behavioral patterns have been studied in a wide variety of patient populations, from newly diagnosed cancer patients to the geriatric population to women in rural communities. [4][5][6] Since the mid-1990s, with an explosion of information available on the Internet, there has been the development of a research area that focuses on how and why patients seek health information, where they obtain it, and how they use it. 3 By understanding the methods used by patients in this health information-seeking process, researchers and providers have identified strategies to make health information more accurate, more applicable, and more easily available.…”

Reproductive Health Information Needs and Access Among Rural Women in Nigeria: A Study of Nsukka Zone in Enugu State

“…Provision of adequate and timely health information is critical to empowering women in developing countries. Women seek health information for themselves and their families (Wathen & Harris, 2007). Health information is critical in health care delivery and health promotion, as it provides the direction and rationale for positive health behaviours, facilitates efficient treatments, and enhances proper decisions on health matters (Kreps, 2005).…”