Maslen Sarah, Lupton Deborah
Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra, University Drive, Bruce, ACT, 2617, Australia.
News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra, University Drive, Bruce, ACT, 2617, Australia.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2018 Dec 3;18(1):916. doi: 10.1186/s12913-018-3749-7.
Previous research has demonstrated the importance of search engines, websites, online discussion groups and social media groups for women in developed countries looking for health and medical information, but few studies have focused on Australian women. The Australian Women and Digital Health Project was designed to investigate how Australian women from a range of age groups and locations used digital health technologies across the full spectrum available to them. The findings on their use of online information and decision-making in relation to seeking face-to-face medical advice are discussed in this article.
Qualitative research, including focus group discussions (24 participants) and face-to-face (12 participants) and telephone (30 participants) semi-structured interviews was conducted with a total of 66 Australian women aged between 21 and 74. The focus groups and interviews were transcribed and analysed using inductive thematic analysis sensitised by a feminist new materialism theoretical standpoint. This involved identifying the dimensions of affordances, relational connections, affective forces and agential capacities in the women's accounts.
All participants regularly used online sources to find health information, advice and support. We identified six key agential capacities relating to these ways in which the women enacted online health information seeking: 1) self-screening; 2) preparing for and following up a consultation; 3) selective engagement; 4) caring for others; 5) creating and sharing new information; and 6) challenging medical authority. The affordances of accessibility and convenience of online sources, relational connections between women and trusted sources (both online and offline) and between women and family members on whose behalf they sought information and affective forces such as trust, the need for reassurance and frustration and anger with deficient healthcare services contributed to these capacities.
Women engaged in complex interactions with online information, actively and creatively using it in diverse ways in their negotiations with seeking face-to-face medical expertise. Their online practices generated a set of agential capacities that help them to assess whether they or their family members need medical attention, supplement or challenge the medical advice they have already received or generate and share their own information.
先前的研究表明，搜索引擎、网站、在线讨论组和社交媒体群组对于发达国家中寻求健康和医疗信息的女性而言十分重要，但很少有研究关注澳大利亚女性。澳大利亚女性与数字健康项目旨在调查不同年龄组和不同地区的澳大利亚女性如何使用她们所能接触到的全系列数字健康技术。本文将讨论她们在寻求面对面医疗建议时对在线信息的使用及决策情况。
对66名年龄在21岁至74岁之间的澳大利亚女性进行了定性研究，包括焦点小组讨论（24名参与者）以及面对面（12名参与者）和电话（30名参与者）半结构化访谈。焦点小组讨论和访谈内容被转录，并采用女性主义新物质主义理论视角启发的归纳主题分析法进行分析。这包括在女性的叙述中识别可供性、关系连接、情感力量和能动能力的维度。
所有参与者都经常使用在线资源来查找健康信息、建议和支持。我们确定了与女性进行在线健康信息搜索的方式相关的六个关键能动能力：1）自我筛查；2）为咨询做准备和跟进；3）选择性参与；4）照顾他人；5）创建和分享新信息；6）挑战医疗权威。在线资源的可及性和便利性、女性与可信来源（包括在线和离线）之间以及女性与她们代表其寻求信息的家庭成员之间的关系连接，以及信任、寻求安心的需求以及对不足的医疗服务的沮丧和愤怒等情感力量促成了这些能力。
女性与在线信息进行了复杂的互动，在与寻求面对面医疗专业知识的协商中积极且创造性地以多种方式使用它。她们的在线行为产生了一系列能动能力，帮助她们评估自己或其家庭成员是否需要医疗护理、补充或挑战她们已经收到的医疗建议，或者生成并分享自己的信息。
