Cultural Health Capital and Fundamental Social Causes: A Gendered Approach to Health 2.0

• In Event: 1555 - Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. In Pursuit of Health: Patient Care and Medical Knowledge

Abstract

A rising interests within medical sociology is understanding of how the presence of online health and medical knowledge influences doctor–patient interactions and health outcomes. We build the conceptual framework of our paper on the sociological literature employing cultural health capital perspective and fundamental cause theory. We propose that information technology is the key flexible resource people can utilize in order to enhance their health and well-being, as digitally obtained knowledge has become a resource to maintaining a good health. For this purpose, we examined gender differences in the effects of e-health information consumerism on self- reported health outcomes. Study sample (n = 710) were randomly sampled from the largest national online probability-based research panel. We examined the hypothesized associations across four dependent variables: Two positive/desired (empowerment and self-care) and two negative/undesired health outcomes (adverse affect, and health problem). We used three analytical approaches to evaluate the sensitivity of the results to modeling specifications. First, we regressed positive and negative health outcomes on e-health information consumerism, controlling for all study covariates. Next, we regressed our dependent variables on two interaction terms (e-health information consumerism x communicational satisfaction with medical encounters and e-health information consumerism x interactional satisfaction with medical encounters). Finally, we examined main and interaction effects in separate regressions by gender. We found significant gender differences in moderating effect of satisfaction with medical encounters on the hypothesized associations. Less satisfaction with medical interactions (less information, attention, and respect) potentiates the effect for e-health information consumerism on perceived better ability to provide self-care and empowerment among men. There is also a significant positive association between strained medical encounters and sense of empowerment among men, but not women. Those who were more satisfied with doctor-patient communication experienced fewer health problems because of implementing Internet information in health management. This result is significant in both genders. Given that traditional methods of acquiring information and gaining knowledge have shifted to the Internet, we believe our study contributes to a theoretically important area of research that holds significant public health and social implications.

Author

• Gul Seckin, University of North Texas