Who Benefits from Digital Health? Gendered and Racialized Pathways to Patient Agency

• In Event: Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 13. Health

Abstract

This study builds upon the theories of cultural health capital (CHC) and fundamental cause theory (FCT) by introducing the concept of digital health capital (DHC), a flexible yet unequally convertible resource inherent in patients' social positions and clinical relationships. Utilizing data from a nationally representative Ipsos panel survey (N=710), this paper investigates two forms of patient agency: empowerment and self-care, to analyze how DHC is activated and under what conditions it proves beneficial. DHC is conceptualized through three components: e-health information consumerism, e-health literacy, and e-trust. The findings reveal a positive association between DHC and both empowerment and self-care, even after adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related variables. However, the influence of DHC is shaped by the nature of clinical encounters. Multivariate models indicate that DHC consistently predicts women's empowerment, irrespective of their satisfaction with clinical care. This suggests that women adopt proactive strategies to navigate inequalities in healthcare knowledge. Conversely, men often experience empowerment in reaction to low provider satisfaction, signaling a responsive approach to concerns over legitimacy. Notably, non-White men report significantly greater improvements in self-care, indicating that DHC may act as a compensatory resource, especially in racialized clinical contexts. This challenges conventional, passive interpretations of the sick role. Ultimately, this research's findings contribute to a deeper sociological understanding of DHC as a form of symbolic capital. They underscore that its value depends on the dynamics of interaction within healthcare settings, challenging the prevailing notion that information technology is uniformly beneficial in the digital health era.

Author

• Gul Seckin, University of North Texas