ICTs and the changing health knowledge economy: how people find health information in Bangladesh

这一建议是对“信息通信技术与发展”主题的回应。全球获取信息和通信技术（ICT）的机会正在迅速变化，有可能对发展产生积极和消极的影响。分析卫生部门的一种方法是作为一种知识经济——如何获得关于如何管理特定卫生问题的专家建议，以及如何获得具体商品，如药品，这些商品体现了大量的研究和开发。然而，这种访问从何开始？它始于个人或家庭做出寻求信息的决定——寻求建议或寻找商品。在资源贫乏的家庭中，如何做出这样的决定？与我们大多数人以及一般人类经验一样，“日常生活信息寻求”是多种来源的混合体：中介——朋友、家人：寻找信息来源（当地市场）；技术——上网、拨打求助热线、听广播、进入图书馆等。但是对于资源贫乏的家庭来说，这种混合是什么样的，它是否随着信息通信技术的发展而改变？我们知道，贫困家庭通常可以使用移动电话，并且越来越多地使用互联网。这种不断变化的获取途径是否正在改变人们寻求卫生信息的核心行为？在这项研究中，我们看到三种变化的景观可能会影响家庭的选择。卫生状况正在发生变化。新的机会正在出现。在孟加拉国，有电话求助热线，当地保健提供者有时在专业支助方面联网，还有新的私营保健提供者。一个家庭该如何应对这些新机遇呢？信息通信技术的格局正在发生变化。家庭可以使用移动电话。在许多情况下，他们可以上网。他们有多少使用这些工具来寻求健康信息？他们开始用b谷歌进行自我诊断了吗？他们会打电话给远房表亲寻求建议，还是仍然优先考虑面对面的交流？“寻求信息”本身就是一个不断变化的（全球）景观。在世界范围内，我们正在创造寻找信息的新模式。例如，在发达国家，在线社交网络的作用是一个主要渠道。资源贫乏的孟加拉国家庭是否开始探索其他信息渠道？他们有基本的信息素养吗？他们相信他们在报纸上读到的，他们在收音机里听到的吗？收音机仍然是获取信息的主要渠道吗？还是已经被电视取代了？我们的研究将考虑这三种不断变化的景观是如何相互作用的，尽管有新兴的研究机构在研究每一种景观，但很少有人试图将它们整合到一个由实证研究支持的单一概念框架中。该项目虽然侧重于一个国家，但将探讨不同资源环境下的不同家庭，以确定共同的方法和决策模式，帮助我们了解资源贫乏家庭在不断变化的世界中如何寻求健康信息。

This proposal is responding to the theme of "Information and Communication Technology and Development".Global access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is changing rapidly with the potential to impact on development in both positive and negative ways.One way of analysing the health sector is as a knowledge economy - how to access expert advice on how to manage a particular health problem and how to access specific commodities, such as drugs, which embody a large amount of research and development. Yet where does this access start? It starts with the individual or household making a decision to seek information - to seek the advice or find the commodities. In a resource poor household, how are such decisions made? In common with many of us, and the general human experience, 'Everyday Life Information-Seeking', is a mixture of sources: mediators - friends, family: finding information grounds (the local market) , and technology - going online, phoning a helpline, listening to the radio, accessing a library, etc. But for resource poor households what does that mix look like, and is it changing with the growth of ICTs? We know that poor households often have access to mobile phones and increasingly to the internet. Is this changing access changing the core behaviour of health information seeking? In this research we see three changing landscapes that could be affecting households choices. The health landscape is changing. New opportunities are opening up. In Bangladesh there are telephone helplines, local providers of health are sometimes networked in professional support, there are new private providers of healthcare. How does a household navigate these new opportunities?The ICT landscape is changing. Households have access to mobile phones. In many cases they have access to the internet. How much do they use these for seeking health information? Have they begun to use Google to self diagnose? Do they phone their distant cousins for advice, or are they still prioritising face-to-face contact? 'Information-seeking' itself is a changing (global) landscape. The world over we are creating new patterns of information-seeking. For instance, in developed countries the role of online social networks is a dominant channel. Are resource poor Bangladeshi households beginning to explore alternative information channels? Do they have a basic information literacy? Do the trust what they read in the newspapers, what they hear on the radio? Is the radio still a key channel for information or has it been replaced by the television?Our research will consider how these three changing landscapes interact with each other and while there are emerging bodies of work on each, there is very little that attempts to bring them together into a single conceptual framework supported by empirical research. This project, although focused on a single country, will explore different households in different resource settings to identify common approaches and decision-making patterns, to contribute to our understanding of how resource poor households are seeking health information in a changing world.