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

这项提议是对“信息和通信技术与发展”这一主题的回应。全球获得信息和通信技术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式是将其视为知识经济--如何获得关于如何管理特定健康问题的专家意见，以及如何获得药品等具体商品，这些商品包含了大量的研究和开发工作。然而，这种接入从哪里开始呢？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。在一个资源贫乏的家庭中，这样的决定是如何做出的？与我们许多人一样，以及人类的普遍经验，‘日常生活信息搜寻’是一种混合的来源：调解人-朋友、家人：寻找信息场地(当地市场)，以及技术-上网、拨打帮助热线、听广播、访问图书馆等。但对于资源贫乏的家庭来说，这种混合是什么样子的，它是否会随着信息和通信技术的发展而改变？我们知道，贫困家庭经常可以使用移动电话，而且越来越多地可以使用互联网。这种获取方式的改变正在改变寻求健康信息的核心行为吗？在这项研究中，我们看到了三个可能影响家庭选择的变化。健康状况正在发生变化。新的机遇正在涌现。在孟加拉国，有电话求助热线，当地的医疗服务提供者有时会联网提供专业支持，还有新的私人医疗保健提供者。家庭如何把握这些新机遇？信息和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，他们可以访问互联网。他们有多大程度上使用这些信息来寻求健康信息？他们已经开始使用谷歌进行自我诊断了吗？他们会给远方的表亲打电话寻求建议吗，还是仍然优先考虑面对面的接触？“信息搜寻”本身就是一个不断变化的(全球)格局。在世界各地，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占主导地位的渠道。资源贫乏的孟加拉家庭是否开始探索替代信息渠道？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？广播仍是一个关键的信息渠道，还是已经被电视取代？我们的研究将考虑这三个不断变化的环境是如何相互作用的，尽管有针对每个环境的新兴工作机构，但很少有人试图将它们结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，但将探索不同资源环境中的不同家庭，以确定共同的方法和决策模式，以帮助我们了解资源贫乏的家庭如何在不断变化的世界中寻求健康信息。

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.