Seeking and Processing Information for Health Decisions among Elderly Chinese Singaporean Women

Chang, Leanne; Basnyat, Iccha; Teo, Daniel

doi:10.1080/08952841.2014.888881

Cited by 25 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Buyers of any treatment, including saiga products, were most likely to be middle-aged women. Women’s role in making health decisions for others within their interpersonal network is well documented [41] and as such, our findings confirmed our hypothesis on gender for buyers. A 2006 study found Singaporean wives, more than husbands, were the ones to purchase over-the-counter medicine for their family unit [31].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Regarding motivations for consumption, the highly reported "Someone recommended it to me" answer echoes the well-documented influence of interpersonal communication on human behaviour, including health choices [44]. Specifically within Singapore, Chang et al found that Chinese Singaporean women cited their spouses, parents, and peers as key ongoing influences in their health decisions [41]. The particular impact of familial influence was seen in "Family" being the most reported recommender for saiga product self-usage among our respondents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Saiga horn user characteristics, motivations, and purchasing behaviour in Singapore

Doughty

Veríssimo

Tan³

et al. 2019

PLoS ONE

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Unsustainable wildlife trade is a pervasive issue affecting wildlife globally. To address this issue, a plethora of demand reduction efforts have been carried out. These necessitate consumer research which provides crucial knowledge for designing and evaluating targeted interventions. We implemented a rigorous consumer survey on saiga (Saiga tatarica) horn use in Singapore, where usage is legal and widely sold. Saiga are Critically Endangered antelopes from Central Asia with horns (often marketed as ling yang) used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Few past studies have assessed saiga horn consumers. This work is the most extensive consumer research to date specifically characterising saiga horn consumers and usage. We conducted 2294 in-person surveys on saiga horn use with Chinese Singaporeans, employing neutral questioning approaches. We found 19% of individuals reported saiga horn as a product they choose most often for themselves and/or others when treating fever and/or heatiness (a TCM state of illness), indicating a minimum estimate of high-frequency usage, not including possible low-frequency users. Overall saiga users were most characterised as middle-aged Buddhists and Taoists. However, saiga users were found in a range of demographic groups. Women preferred saiga shavings (the more traditional form), while men preferred saiga cooling water (the more modern form). About 53% of individuals who used saiga horn themselves also bought it for someone else. Buyers for others were most likely to be female middle-aged Buddhists or Taoists. Key motivating reasons for usage were “it works” and “someone recommended it to me.” The top two reported recommenders were family and TCM shopkeepers. Saiga users were more likely than non-saiga users to perceive saiga as a common species in the wild. This research holds significance for interventions targeting saiga horn consumption within Singapore and throughout Asia, by identifying potential target audiences, product types, non-desirable alternatives, and motivations for use.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Saiga horn user characteristics, motivations, and purchasing behaviour in Singapore

Doughty

Veríssimo

Tan³

et al. 2019

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The many Facebook shares and personal call‐outs (particularly with identifiably positive responses from targeted individuals), indicates that we achieved our objective of social sharing, thereby socially reinforcing the message. Further, since our target audience looks to their social network for health treatment advice (Chang, Basnyat, & Teo, 2014), even if individuals did not adopt the message directly from our adverts, social reinforcement online or offline by their networks increased the likelihood they would subsequently adopt it.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic advertising of online news articles as an intervention to influence wildlife product consumers

Doughty

Wright

Veríssimo

et al. 2020

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Changing human behavior is essential for biodiversity conservation, but robust approaches for large scale change are needed. Concepts like repeat message exposure and social reinforcement, as well as mechanisms like online news coverage and targeted advertisements, are currently used by private and public sectors, and could prove powerful for conservation. Thus, to explore their potential in influencing wildlife consumption, we used online advertisements through Facebook, Google, and Outbrain, to promote news articles discussing the use of a Critically Endangered antelope (the Saiga tatarica) as a traditional Chinese medicine in Singapore. Our message, tailored to middle-aged Chinese Singaporean women, framed saiga horn products as being no longer socially endorsed. Through advert performance and in-depth analyses of Facebook user engagement, we assessed audience response. Our message pervaded Singapore's online media (e.g., our adverts were shown almost five million times; and the story ran on seven news outlets), and resulted in widespread desirable audience responses (e.g., 63% of Facebook users' engagements included identifiably positive features like calls for public action to reduce saiga horn consumption, anger at having unknowingly used a Critically Endangered species, and self-pledges to no longer use it; only 13% of engagements included identifiably negative features). This work shows that targeted dissemination of online news articles can have promising results, and may have wide applicability to conservation.

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“…It is an asset related to health literacy and requires one to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information and services to promote and maintain health [34]. Consistent with a past study conducted in Singapore [35], older adults obtained health information from multiple sources and had to determine such information's trustworthiness. In most situations, older adults reached out to personal social networks for health information, and less frequently via online sources [36].…”

Section: Personal Repositorymentioning

confidence: 93%

Supporting the mobilization of health assets among older community dwellers residing in senior-only households in Singapore: a qualitative study

et al. 2020

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Background Care activities provided by community health practitioners for older adults primarily focused on disease prevention and management. However, healthy longevity can go beyond disease prevention and management and promote greater well-being by tapping into the accrual of resources that older adults possess using the salutogenic approach. This study explored how health resources are used among older adults who are residing in senior-only households to promote and maintain health, with the intent of providing insights into how community health practitioners can support these older adults via asset-based strategies. Methods We adopted a descriptive qualitative study design using focus group discussions. Twenty-seven older adults who either lived alone or with their spouses were purposively sampled from an elderly populated residential estate in Singapore. Six focus group discussions, conducted from December 2016 to May 2017, were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results The themes that emerged were ‘tapping on internal self-care repository’, ‘maintaining and preserving informal social support’, and ‘enabling self by using environmental aids’, and an eco-map of aging assets was used to capture an overview of internal and external resources. With the repository of personal strengths, knowledge, and experiences, these older adults were generally resourceful in navigating around their resource-rich environments to cope with everyday life stressors and promote health. However, they were occasionally limited by individual factors that affected their comprehension, access, maintenance, and utilization of resources. Conclusion The eco-map of aging assets can be used as an assessment framework by community health practitioners to recognize, consider, and build a repertoire of resources among these older adults. It serves as a gentle reminder to adopt an ecological approach in considering and tapping into older adults’ wide-ranging personal, social, and environmental resources. Community health practitioners can support resource integration as resource facilitators via cognitive, behavioral, and motivational salutogenic pathways to overcome resource mobilization barriers faced by older adults. Such an approach helps older adults to find their internal capabilities and abilities to know who, where, what, and how to seek external resources to identify solutions, creating the intrinsic value to sustain their actions on resource utility.

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Seeking and Processing Information for Health Decisions among Elderly Chinese Singaporean Women

Cited by 25 publications

References 30 publications

Saiga horn user characteristics, motivations, and purchasing behaviour in Singapore

Saiga horn user characteristics, motivations, and purchasing behaviour in Singapore

Strategic advertising of online news articles as an intervention to influence wildlife product consumers

Supporting the mobilization of health assets among older community dwellers residing in senior-only households in Singapore: a qualitative study

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