Bhowmick Anamitra, van der Zande Marieke M, Harris Rebecca
Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems, Institute of Population Health, University of Liverpool, Whelan Building, Liverpool, L69 3GL, UK.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2025 Mar 27;25(1):443. doi: 10.1186/s12913-025-12525-y.
Lay people's knowledge influences healthcare service utilisation, but the literature on people's knowledge-seeking and sharing about different healthcare services across social networks is patchy and not well integrated. This scoping review was undertaken to map how different studies report healthcare service -related (healthcare) knowledge-seeking or sharing in social circles and to identify evidence gaps for further research.
Levac's enhanced scoping review framework was adapted to develop a comprehensive electronic search strategy. Four electronic databases-Medline, Web of Science, PsychINFO, and CINAHL were searched as well as Grey literature. Five per cent of all titles and abstracts screened were screened by a blinded second reviewer. After full-text screening, data were extracted and summarised.
The review included 14 quantitative, 23 qualitative, 2 mixed-method studies, one literature review and one report [N = 41]. Theories included within studies ranged from the socio-ecological model to bricolage. The concept of healthcare-related knowledge was generally ill defined and usually positioned within the concept of health literacy more generally. Lay people's healthcare knowledge was not generally considered as a distinct entity in a holistic sense, with only two studies identified which investigated healthcare knowledge exclusively at inter-personal (meso) levels. However, included studies showed that people's healthcare knowledge in everyday life is co-constructed when they engage in inter-personal interactions with informal social network ties. People tend to acquire healthcare knowledge from others who share similar lived experiences of using healthcare services, which binds the knowledge seekers through homophily. Due to the social responsibility to help others being ingrained within the community, people (predominantly women), support each other, providing emotional and instrumental support in addition to essential healthcare information. This then builds holistic healthcare literacy, which people conventionally do not gain solely from the knowledge transmitted by healthcare professionals.
People in diverse community settings acquired, co-constructed, transmitted, or suppressed knowledge about various healthcare services with the support of informal networks, mostly family and friends, combined with mass media sources. Therefore, people's healthcare knowledge is not an individual asset but a shared resource among their social circles. It is multi-faceted and acquired from diverse sources available in the local and online communities and not limited only to individually held lay accounts of using healthcare services.
外行人士的知识会影响医疗服务的利用情况，但关于人们在社交网络中寻求和分享不同医疗服务相关知识的文献并不完整，且整合程度不高。本综述旨在梳理不同研究如何报告社交圈子中与医疗服务相关（医疗保健）的知识寻求或分享情况，并确定有待进一步研究的证据空白。
采用莱瓦克改进的综述框架制定全面的电子检索策略。检索了四个电子数据库——医学索引数据库（Medline）、科学引文索引数据库（Web of Science）、心理学文摘数据库（PsychINFO）和护理学与健康领域数据库（CINAHL）以及灰色文献。所有筛选出的标题和摘要中有5%由第二位审阅者进行盲法筛选。在进行全文筛选后，提取并总结数据。
该综述纳入了14项定量研究、23项定性研究、2项混合方法研究、1篇文献综述和1份报告（N = 41）。研究中涉及的理论范围从社会生态模型到拼合利用。与医疗保健相关的知识概念通常定义不明确，且通常更广泛地置于健康素养概念之内。从整体意义上讲，外行人士的医疗保健知识一般不被视为一个独特的实体，仅有两项研究专门在人际（中观）层面调查了医疗保健知识。然而，纳入的研究表明，人们在日常生活中的医疗保健知识是在与非正式社交网络关系进行人际互动时共同构建的。人们倾向于从那些有使用医疗服务相似生活经历的人那里获取医疗保健知识，这种同质性将知识寻求者联系在一起。由于帮助他人的社会责任在社区中根深蒂固，人们（主要是女性）相互支持，除了提供基本的医疗保健信息外，还提供情感和实际支持。这进而构建了整体的医疗保健素养，而人们传统上并非仅仅从医疗保健专业人员传递的知识中获得这种素养。
在不同社区环境中的人们在非正式网络（主要是家人和朋友）以及大众媒体来源的支持下，获取、共同构建、传播或抑制了关于各种医疗服务的知识。因此，人们的医疗保健知识不是个人资产，而是其社交圈子中的共享资源。它是多方面的，从当地和在线社区的各种来源获取，而不仅限于个人对使用医疗服务的外行描述。
