University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

“You Have to Know Your Body!”: The Role of the Body in Influencing the Information Behaviors of People with Type 2 Diabetes

St. Jean, Beth; Jindal, Gagan; Chan, Katherine

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/101420

Description

Title
“You Have to Know Your Body!”: The Role of the Body in Influencing the Information Behaviors of People with Type 2 Diabetes
Author(s)
  • St. Jean, Beth
  • Jindal, Gagan
  • Chan, Katherine
Issue Date
2018
Keyword(s)
  • Information science
  • Embodied experience
  • Information behavior
  • Body
  • Health-related information
  • Diabetes
Abstract
Although many information behavior studies have investigated the wide array of sources people turn to when they have a health-related information need, very few have looked at the roles played by the body in these processes. Drawing on a mixed-method exploration of the information behaviors of people with type 2 diabetes, this study identifies the important roles played by an individual’s own body (i.e., informant, motivator, demotivator, and barrier) and by the bodies of other people with diabetes (i.e., comrades/mentors, role models, galvanizers, inhibitors, inspirations, and potential mentees). One of the most significant findings is that a person’s own body and the bodies of others with diabetes can fuel incognizance (an enduring unawareness that one has a particular information need), information avoidance, and information nonuse; however, they also can interrupt incognizance, illuminating information needs and motivating information seeking and use. We propose a novel model of body-related information behavior and discuss the possibility that body-related information behaviors may not only affect an individual’s health trajectory but also reinforce health disparities within disadvantaged communities. In conclusion, we recommend strategies for ensuring everyone has optimal opportunities to benefit from body-related information behaviors and to live a long and healthy life.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press. The School of Information Sciences at Illinois. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Series/Report Name or Number
Library Trends 66 (3). Winter 2018
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101420
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2018.0004
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2018 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 66 (3) Winter 2018: Information and the Body: Part 1 PRIMARY
Library Trends 66 (3) Winter 2018: Information and the Body: Part 1. Edited by Andrew M. Cox, Brian Griffin, and Jenna Hartel