Correlates of COVID-19 Information Overload and Information Seeking: Evidence from a Community Survey.

PURPOSE: To examine the relationships among health literacy, risk perceptions, COVID-19 information overload, health information seeking, and race/ethnicity. DESIGN: A cross-sectional non-probability community survey conducted between December 2020 and January 2021. A questionnaire was developed in collaboration with a local minority health task force. SETTING: Albany, New York, USA. SAMPLE: 331 adults residing in Albany, NY and neighboring areas (80.3% completion rate). MEASURES: Multi-item scales were used to measure health literacy, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, information overload, and health information seeking frequency and types. ANALYSIS: We conducted multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS: Health literacy (standardized ß = -.33, P < .001) and perceived severity (ß = -.23, P < .001) were negatively associated with information overload. Information overload was negatively associated with health information seeking frequency (ß = -.16, P < .05) and types (ß = -.19, P < .01). A further analysis shows several factors, including information overload and race (African Americans), were negatively related to seeking specific types of information. CONCLUSION: We find that low health literacy and perceived severity contribute to information overload and that information overload adversely affects health information seeking. Black individuals are less likely to search for certain types of information. The cross-sectional study design limits our ability to determine causality. Future research should employ panel data to determine the directionality of the observed relationships.

Interpretative repertoires that shape low-income African American women's reproductive health care seeking: "don't want to know" and "taking charge of your health".

In the context of reproductive and sexual health, African American women have higher incidence of disease and poorer outcomes on key indicators when compared with White women. In this study, we used discourse analysis to identify and examine the workings of two clusters of interpretive resources ("interpretative repertoires") associated with reproductive/sexual health care seeking among low-income African American women who participated in semistructured interviews as part of a health promotion initiative. Interpretative repertoires are ways of accounting for engaging in or refraining from engaging in actions, which are shared by people in a community. We labeled the two interpretative repertoires "Don't Want to Know," and "Take Charge of Your Health." Within the "Don't Want to Know" repertoire, that testing would lead to threatening findings was assumed, a chain of devastating consequences was imagined, and a preference for uncertainty over certain knowledge was expressed. Conversely, the "Take Charge of Your Health" repertoire valued certainty over uncertainty, though in both interpretive frameworks, knowledge-based and emotion-based decision-making were intertwined. We conclude that health promotion initiatives--if they are to succeed in encouraging women to obtain valuable preventive health care services--must respond, in their choices of language and outreach strategies, to the expressed dilemma of wishing for reassurance but fearing bad news, to the intertwining of emotional reasoning and technorationality in health decision making, and to the particular relational experiences of African American women. Failure to do so will contribute to the continuation of reproductive and sexual health disparities.

A Communicative Analysis of a Sexual Health Screening Intervention Conducted in a Low-income Housing Complex.

Providing free HIV screening within public housing sites offers the potential for increased participation of at-risk populations. Residential-based screening, however, raises concerns about privacy because of the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS and even to the testing for HIV. This study examined the effectiveness of offering HIV screening within a public housing high-rise in upstate New York. Through interviews with both women who obtained testing and those who did not, this study explored the tension between convenience and privacy concerns. The findings suggest that offering HIV screening where people live could encourage participation in the screenings, as well as lead to a destigmatization of HIV testing over time. Some women chose to eschew the convenience of on-site testing in favor of a more private venue for screening, whereas some women responded positively to the accessibility of on-site testing, using communicative strategies to manage privacy concerns.

Permeability of public and private spaces in reproductive healthcare seeking: barriers to uptake of services among low income African American women in a smaller urban setting.

This study was undertaken in partnership with a publicly funded reproductive healthcare organization to better understand barriers to utilization of its services as perceived by low income African American women in its community and how those barriers might be managed. The study uses a place-based, ecological perspective to theorize privacy challenges across different levels of the communication ecology. Analysis of participant observation, interviews, and focus group data identified three key public-private problematics in African American women's experience of reproductive healthcare seeking in a smaller urban setting: a public-private problematic of organizational identity, of organizational regions, and of organizational members. Potential strategies are identified for managing these problematics by the organization and community members.