Background People’s health-related knowledge influences health outcomes, as this knowledge may influence whether individuals follow advice from their doctors or public health agencies. Yet, little attention has been paid to where people obtain health information and how these information sources relate to the quality of knowledge. Objective We aim to discover what information sources people use to learn about health conditions, how these sources relate to the quality of their health knowledge, and how both the number of information sources and health knowledge change over time. Methods We surveyed 200 different individuals at 12 time points from March through September 2020. At each time point, we elicited participants’ knowledge about causes, risk factors, and preventative interventions for 8 viral (Ebola, common cold, COVID-19, Zika) and nonviral (food allergies, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [ALS], strep throat, stroke) illnesses. Participants were further asked how they learned about each illness and to rate how much they trust various sources of health information. Results We found that participants used different information sources to obtain health information about common illnesses (food allergies, strep throat, stroke) compared to emerging illnesses (Ebola, common cold, COVID-19, Zika). Participants relied mainly on news media, government agencies, and social media for information about emerging illnesses, while learning about common illnesses from family, friends, and medical professionals. Participants relied on social media for information about COVID-19, with their knowledge accuracy of COVID-19 declining over the course of the pandemic. The number of information sources participants used was positively correlated with health knowledge quality, though there was no relationship with the specific source types consulted. Conclusions Building on prior work on health information seeking and factors affecting health knowledge, we now find that people systematically consult different types of information sources by illness type and that the number of information sources people use affects the quality of individuals’ health knowledge. Interventions to disseminate health information may need to be targeted to where individuals are likely to seek out information, and these information sources differ systematically by illness type.
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When and Why People Conceal Infectious Disease
People sick with infectious illnesses face negative social outcomes, like exclusion, and may take steps to conceal their illnesses from others. In 10 studies of past, current, and projected illness, we examined the prevalence and predictors of infection concealment in adult samples of U.S. university students, health-care employees, and online crowdsourced workers (total N = 4,110). About 75% reported concealing illness in interpersonal interactions, possibly placing others in harm’s way. Concealment motives were largely social (e.g., wanting to attend events like parties) and achievement oriented (e.g., completing work objectives). Disease characteristics, including potential harm and illness immediacy, also influenced concealment decisions. People imagining harmful (vs. mild) infections concealed illness less frequently, whereas participants who were actually sick concealed frequently regardless of illness harm, suggesting state-specific biases underlying concealment decisions. Disease concealment appears to be a widely prevalent behavior by which concealers trade off risks to others in favor of their own goals, creating potentially important public-health consequences.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 2134796
- PAR ID:
- 10487921
- Publisher / Repository:
- Association for Psychological Science
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Psychological Science
- ISSN:
- 0956-7976
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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People with concealable stigmatized identities may strategically share or hide cues to their identity. They may likewise seek or avoid interpersonal invisibility (i.e., being ignored). Despite semantic similarities, identity concealment and invisibility are conceptually distinct, but existing empirical work has not explored whether they are independent—that is, whether people may sometimes reveal to be invisible, or conceal to be visible. To evaluate this distinction, we collected lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) participants’ free-response descriptions of situations where they revealed or concealed their sexual orientation to be visible or invisible (Study 1). Other LGB participants imagined social interactions in which they revealed or concealed their sexual orientation to be visible or invisible and rated their expected emotions in this situation (Study 2). We find that concealment and invisibility can occur independently of one another with separate effects on emotions, and that LGB people use identity disclosure and concealment to strategically navigate interpersonal invisibility.
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People who believe they are invulnerable to infectious diseases often fail to protect themselves against the disease threats that others pose to them. The current paper hypothesizes that social pain—the experience of feeling interpersonally hurt or rejected—can sensitize the behavioral-immune system by giving people added reason to see others as worthy of protecting themselves against. We obtained four daily diary samples involving 2,794 participants who reported how hurt/rejected they felt by those they knew, how personally concerned they were about the spread of illness/COVID-19, and how vigilantly they engaged in self-protective behaviors to safeguard their health each day. An integrative data analysis revealed robust evidence that people who believed they were invulnerable to infectious disease engaged in more concerted efforts to protect themselves against the greater daily risk of contracting COVID-19 when being in acute social pain gave them added reason to see others as harmful to them.
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Abstract This paper demonstrates how greater engagement with liminality – as a concept and lived experience – can expand scholarly conceptualisations of health/disease in contaminated spaces. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Sri Lanka's dry zone between 2013 and 2017, I focus on residents' encounters with chronic kidney disease diagnosis in a region where the causes of illness are uncertain, the consequences of disease are often deadly, and the possibilities of developing sickness in the future are both unpredictable and ever‐present. Specifically, I examine how residents of kidney disease hotspots negotiate various attempts to categorise them as being, or not being, healthy in ways that give rise to experiences of liminality. Building on work in feminist disability studies, I conceptualise “undiagnosis” and “anticipatory diagnosis” as two such liminal states of health that reconfigure medical and social practices in the dry zone. As part of this analysis, I explain why residents are so reluctant to get screened for kidney disease and demonstrate how they strategically mobilise moments of “undiagnosis” to resist patient subjectivities and prolong existing lifeways. I then turn to a discussion of anticipatory diagnosis, which describes the practice of re‐classifying residents of disease hotspots who are not yet sick as embodying the potential to become ill at any time. Frequently deployed by the state, medical practitioners, and non‐dry zone communities, I demonstrate how this practice collapses categories of “at‐risk” and “diseased” in external categorisations of residents' future health status. In short, liminality comes to be embodied through the constant anticipation of disease despite uncertainty about who will actually become sick and why. Tying these experiences together, I elucidate how geography matters to the constitution of liminal states of health and crucially demonstrate how this liminality helps reproduce place attachments as well as forms of geographic differentiation in the shadow of toxic contamination.
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Abstract Background People with mental illnesses are disproportionately entangled in the criminal legal system. Historically, this involvement has resulted from minor offending, often accompanied by misdemeanor charges. In recent years, policymakers have worked to reduce the footprint of the criminal legal system. This paper seeks to better understand how misdemeanor systems intervene in the lives of people with mental illnesses.
Methods System mapping exercises were conducted with misdemeanor system stakeholders from the jurisdictions of Atlanta, Chicago, Manhattan, and Philadelphia. Narrative detail on decision-making and case processing, both generally and in relation to specific types of behavior, including trespassing, retail theft/shoplifting, and simple assault, were coded and analyzed for thematic patterns. Based on the qualitative analysis, this paper offers a conceptual diagram of contexts shaping misdemeanor system interventions among people with mental illnesses.
Results All four sites have been engaged in efforts to reduce the use of misdemeanor charges both generally and in relation to people with mental illnesses. Decision-makers across all sites experience contexts that shape how, when, and where they intervene, which are: (1) law and policy environments; (2) location of the behavior; (3) expectations of stakeholders; (4) knowledge of mental illnesses; and (5) access to community resources. Law and policy environments expand or constrain opportunities for diversion. The location of offending is relevant to who has a stake in the behavior, and what demands they have. Clinical, experiential, and system-level knowledge of mental illnesses inform a chain of decisions about what to do. The capacity to address mental health needs is contingent on access to social services, including housing.
Conclusion People making decisions along the criminal legal continuum are critical to illuminating the dynamic, inter-related contexts that facilitate and frustrate attempts to address defendants’ mental health needs while balancing considerations of public safety. Multi-sector, scenario-based or case study exercises could help identify concrete ways of improving each of the contexts that surround whole-of-system decisions.
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976231221990
