Department of Sociology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Sociology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Soc Sci Med. 2020 Dec;267:113349. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113349. Epub 2020 Sep 8.
As genetic models are increasingly incorporated in medicine, health service users seem to accept these models to varying degrees. To appreciate these differences, this paper examines how health service users' genetic beliefs of health are associated with their use of traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) via responses from 31 countries in the 2011 ISSP survey. It finds an interesting contrast between East Asian countries and other countries in the world. The negative association between genetic beliefs and TCAM use is strong in the latter, whereas it is weak in the former. More intriguingly, the analysis demonstrates significant cross-national differences within East Asian countries. Chinese and Koreans reveal a negative relationship between genetic beliefs and TCAM use, while Japanese show a positive relationship. The paper provides an explanation to these cross-national differences by drawing on comparative studies of medical systems. When TCAM is institutionalized as valid and distinct medical resources, and when TCAM is practically available to everyday use, health service users who subscribe to genetic beliefs are likely to use TCAM as well. These findings contribute to revealing the pragmatic nature of health-seeking action and the institutional context in which geneticization and medical pluralism are conditioned to form.
随着遗传模型越来越多地被应用于医学领域，医疗服务使用者似乎在不同程度上接受了这些模型。为了了解这些差异，本文通过对 2011 年 ISSP 调查中 31 个国家的回应，考察了医疗服务使用者对健康的遗传信念如何与其对传统、补充和替代医学（TCAM）的使用相关联。研究结果在东亚国家和世界其他国家之间发现了一个有趣的对比。在后一种情况下，遗传信念与 TCAM 使用之间的负相关关系很强，而在前一种情况下则较弱。更有趣的是，分析表明东亚国家内部存在显著的跨国差异。中国和韩国显示出遗传信念与 TCAM 使用之间的负相关关系，而日本则显示出正相关关系。本文通过对医疗体系的比较研究，对这些跨国差异提供了一种解释。当 TCAM 被制度化为有效和独特的医疗资源，并且 TCAM 在实践中可供日常使用时，认同遗传信念的医疗服务使用者可能也会使用 TCAM。这些发现有助于揭示寻求医疗服务行动的务实性质，以及遗传化和医学多元化形成的制度背景。
