Improving access to health information for older migrants by using grounded theory and social network analysis to understand their information behaviour and digital technology use

Abstract

Migrant well-being can be strongly influenced by the migration experience and subsequent degree of mainstream language acquisition. There is little research on how older Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (CALD) migrants who have 'aged in place' find health information, and the role which digital technology plays in this. Although the research for this paper was not focused on cancer, we draw out implications for providing cancer-related information to this group. We interviewed 54 participants (14 men and 40 women) aged 63-94 years, who were born in Italy or Greece, and who migrated to Australia mostly as young adults after World War II. Constructivist grounded theory and social network analysis were used for data analysis. Participants identified doctors, adult children, local television, spouse, local newspaper and radio as the most important information sources. They did not generally use computers, the Internet or mobile phones to access information. Literacy in their birth language, and the degree of proficiency in understanding and using English, influenced the range of information sources accessed and the means used. The ways in which older CALD migrants seek and access information has important implications for how professionals and policymakers deliver relevant information to them about cancer prevention, screening, support and treatment, particularly as information and resources are moved online as part of e-health.

Applying a critical approach to investigate barriers to digital inclusion and online social networking among young people with disabilities

“…Research should also investigate differences within the group of young people with disabilities by socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity and rurality, because the literature shows that these are key factors that also shape Internet use (e.g. Dane et al, ; Ewing & Thomas, ; Golder et al, ; Goodall et al, ; Helsper & Eynon, ; Newman et al, ; NTIA National Telecommunications & Information Administration ; Vinson & Rawsthorne, ).…”

“…The emerging literature on digital inclusion emphasises the need to look beyond individuals to investigate how the social context and daily practices of specific groups shape resources for Internet use (Baum, Newman & Biedrzycki ; Geniets & Eynon, ). Previous qualitative research with adults from lower socioeconomic and non‐English speaking backgrounds has identified barriers to Internet use beyond low income and poor literacy to include lack of social and family resources for IT use (Newman et al, ; Goodall et al, ). Providing IT hardware in schools is often seen as an equaliser to socioeconomic barriers to IT use, but home IT use is often impacted by broader family factors (Warschauer et al, ).…”

“…In Australia, 86% of households have Internet access, but this is lower for those who have only completed high school or a vocational qualification (73%) and for low‐income households (67%) (Ewing & Thomas, ). Key factors influencing other groups not being online, such as older people and those in rural areas, also include lower education level, lower income, poor English proficiency and single‐person household arrangements (Dane et al, ; Goodall et al, ). A recent report by two well‐known non‐government organisations notes that Internet access is a key component of the ‘bundle’ of factors that constitute multiple disadvantage – other factors include disability support, low Year 9 reading levels and lack of social engagement as young adults (Vinson & Rawsthorne, ).…”

Posting behavior in Social Networks and Content Active Filtering

“…Websites Initiatives (like politifact.com or FactCheck.org) that try to introduce the same visibility to different opinions. Another context where content diversity is an important issue in Health Information [10] and [11]. In these papers, the authors show that high quality Health information is not easily accessible.…”

Antibiotic utilisation amongst Australian Chinese migrants: a web-based bilingual health survey

“…Therefore, doctors, adult children, local television, spouse, local newspaper and radio were the most important health information sources (214). It has been reported that Chinese migrants in the USA found the translation of health education materials to be culturally and linguistically inappropriate and hence of limited use (211).…”