Sensible Use(rs) and the Construction of Self-Identity in Research Interviews A Qualitative Exploration of how Middle-Aged and Older Adults Search for and Use Online Health Information (original) (raw)
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Sensible Use(rs) and the Construction of Self-Identity in Research Interviews
European Journal of Health Communication, 2021
As a much-used data collection method in qualitative research, interviewing is a primary way to make sense of social life. However, critics point out that interviews are often used uncritically and unreflectively, without considering epistemological foundations and self-presentation efforts by interviewees. By way of a two-step, theory-driven qualitative thematic analysis, this study examines how Belgian middle-aged and older adults (51-79 years old) construct their self-identity in research interviews as sensible internet users with regards to online health information (OHI) and their motivations for doing so. The findings are underpinned by a theoretical framework which enhances impression management (IM) theory with the third-person effect (TPE). The study finds that respondents engage in various IM behaviours, including instances of the TPE, to maximise positive impressions and minimise negative impressions. Through IM, interviewees 1) respond to critical questions; 2) proactive...
Social Sciences and Education Research Review, 2021
This paper presents an exploratory qualitative analysis on health-related internet use by older adults aged over 65 years, a case study consisting of ten in-depth interviews of seniors in Germany. The research focuses on the influence of using the internet for health-related information on the communication between seniors and doctors and on the physician-patient relationship. According to the findings of the research, while in the quantity of communication between older persons and the doctors no significant influence could be assessed, in the quality and the content of the face-to-face/ real communication some changes, as consequences of online informing, could be delimited. Mostly these changes are determined by the fact that seniors are pre-informed before medical visits and thus have additional topics to discuss with doctors. Moreover, the pattern of the physician-patient relationship is affected by the internet consumption. In a medical system, as the German one is, in which the model of the relationship between doctors and patients is predominantly informative and deliberative, and not paternalistic, patients have now, additionally, with the development and use of the internet, the opportunity to search for information and opinions not only medical, scientific, but also about doctors and clinics, as well as the possibility to provide feedback and ratings. These facts place patients now in a position of power in relation to doctors, given that the online ratings, scores and reviews can influence the subsequent inflow of patients of a physician, medical office or clinic.
Seeking Online Health-Related Information by German Seniors: A Qualitative Study
Journal of Human Environment and Health Promotion, 2021
Background: The Internet has become one of the most common informative media for health-related issues. Regarding older people, more research is needed to collect indepth data on the Internet use for health information. The present study aimed to provide an overview on health-related Internet use by seniors in Germany. Methods: This descriptive-analytical qualitative study was conducted on 10 German seniors aged 65-83 years. In order to obtain the required information, in-depth semistructured interviews were carried out between March-June 2017. The subjects were selected by snowball sampling technique. The transcribed interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The findings of the study revealed that seniors' activity on the Internet includes a variety of medical interests. Most of the interviewees access specific medical websites directly, without using search engines. Although about half of the respondents seemed overloaded with the amount of online health information, most of them claimed to be able to evaluate its reliability. Conclusion: For most of the interviewees the health-related information on the Internet provides a basis of knowledge. However, despite the fact that the seniors consider online information useful, most of them prefer to consult at least one doctor when it comes to make health-related decisions, still adhering to the physician-centred care model.
WeChatting for Health: What Motivates Older Adult Engagement with Health Information
Healthcare, 2021
Although WeChat has become increasingly popular among Chinese elderly people as a tool to engage with health information, little research has examined their motivations for health purposes and their engagement with health information on the site. By applying the two-stage Use and gratification (U&G) approach, we first conducted in-depth interviews (n = 20) to explore older adults’ distinctive motives. Based on the 22 motives found in the qualitative research, we developed a questionnaire for an online survey (n = 690) to further investigate how these motives affect older adults’ engagement with health information on WeChat. As the result, six motive typologies were identified: information needs, social support, surveillance, social interaction, self-agency building, and technological convenience. Together, these six types of motivations jointly account for 59.9% of the variance in older adults’ engagement with health information (M = 2.71, SD = 0.79, adjusted R2 = 0.59, p < 0.001...
Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations, 2018
In the last years a shift in the practice of medical communication has occurred and it leads to a displacement from a paternalistic model of patient-provider information toward a model implying an em-beddedness of the medical and human values in the medical interaction and in the decision-taking process of the informed patient. Researches show that older adults respond differently to online communication than younger adults. In this context, seniors face new challenges as regards health-related information and medical communication. The present study deals comparatively with the health-related internet use by the seniors in two European countries: Romania and Germany. Using a qualitative methodology, which involved the in-depth semi-structured interviewing of twenty persons aged 65 years or over who used the internet including for health-related search, we tried to find out which are the similarities and differences between the two samples as concerns health-related online informing and medical communication. Our research has revealed a number of interesting results and inferences. Thus, while between the two samples there are similarities as regards using the internet as a starting point for general information related to health and making informed medical decisions, there exist also a series of differences as regards various aspects, such as the health-related internet use itself-the interest and the ways of searching, the accessed content and websites, the trust in the reliability of the online information, the online feedback and activism etc., as well as the openness to discuss with the physicians about the information gained by the internet consumption.
Journal of Public Health Research, 2019
Background. Online health information (OHI) is widely available and consulted by many people in Western countries to gain health advice. The main goal of the present study is to provide a detailed account of the experiences among people from various demographic backgrounds living in high-income countries, who have used OHI. Design and methods. Thematic analysis of 165 qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted among OHI users residing in Australia, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland was performed. Results. The lived experience of people using OHI seem not to differ across countries. The interviews show that searches for OHI are motivated from curiosity, sharing of experiences, or affirmation for actions already taken. Most people find it difficult to appraise the information, leading them to cross-check sources or discuss OHI with others. OHI seems to impact mostly some specific types of health behaviors, such as changes in diet or physical activity, while it onl...
EUROASIA Congress on Scientific Researches and Recent Trends-VII, December 6-9, 2020 Eurasian University, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2020
In the practice of medical communication, the paternalistic model of patient-provider information has been challenged in the last years by a model implying an embeddedness of the medical and human values in the medical interaction and in the decision-taking process of the informed patient. Also, patients have increasingly begun to adopt a participative role in healthcare, by actively seeking information and rationale for the decisions they make about their health. However, when it comes to searching for medical information on the internet, people are frequently overloaded with the sheer amount of information available online. Moreover, elderly adults respond differently to online communication than younger ones. In this context, seniors face new challenges relating to medical communication, and health-related information and decisions. This paper addresses the health-related internet use by seniors in Germany, through a qualitative methodology, which involved ten in-depth semi-structured interviews with persons aged 65 years or more who use the internet including for health-related search. The findings of the study are discussed in detail in the paper, following the answers to the research questions pursued, referring to the types of health-related information searched, such as general or specific, as for example regarding some medical conditions, if and which advices, recommendations, information about illnesses, treatments, physicians and clinics have been sought, where the searches took place, on what types of websites, such as general, specialized, scientific, etc., the extent to which the interviewees show confidence in the reliability of the internet information and advices, if they are overloaded with the quantity of online health- related information, and so on. Besides, a point of research interest was to find out to what extent the online communication and gaining information related to health from the internet influences the real, face to face communication between the elder patients and their physicians. Starting from these topics and the results of the research, the conclusions of the paper outline how the German seniors use the internet for health-related information and decisions.