From"Small World"to"Concentric Life Circles":Health Information Seeking Behavior of Older Women in China
In order to analyze the health information seeking behavior patterns of older women in China,this paper conducts semi-structured interviews with 15 female participants aged 60 years or older,and codes the interview data using grounded theory.Through the analysis of the data,it is found that older Chinese women's health information seeking behavior,which is largely influenced by the social norms,social types,world views,language and customs of the communities in which they live,has the distinct characteristics described by the small world theory;and that cross-border health information seeking behavior also occurs in some specific contexts.This study suggests that their health information seeking practices fall into a pattern of concentric life circles,centered on the small world life in the round and extended by transitional and unfamiliar life circles.The theory of"concentric life circles"can help older women to break out of their"small world"and guide them towards effective access to quality health information.
older womenhealth information-seeking behaviorsmall world theoryconcentric life circles
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
