Investigating the health seeking information behaviors of Native Americans through a culturally reflective lens

Campbell, Tessa R.

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/123080 Copy

Description

Title

Investigating the health seeking information behaviors of Native Americans through a culturally reflective lens

Author(s)

Campbell, Tessa R.

Issue Date

2023-09

Keyword(s)

• Information Needs
• Information Seeking
• Information Use
• Social Justice
• Sociology of Information
• Specific Populations
• User Behavior

Abstract

There is little understanding of the health information seeking behaviors and attitudes of Native American (NA) populations which is essential for their equitable health care. The development of effective prevention programs requires a full understanding of NA’s health information seeking behaviors. The limited research that has investigated this topic often fails to reflect Indigenous epistemologies and has also highlighted the barriers, deficits and limitations of NA populations. My research aims to examine behavior change and the health seeking-behaviors of NA communities through a new lens. Research has continually examined what is wrong with NA individuals (impoverished or uneducated) and their communities (non-existent library services, no internet or lack of medical services) in place of examining the dysfunctions of the healthcare systems and their policies and programs, thus sustaining power dynamics of the colonial healthcare practices. NA populations represent a unique and distinct identity that has been shaped by colonization and imperialism. The political, legal, and social histories of NA are a complicated domain which are interwoven into their health inequities. It is through the colonial and imperial power dynamics of the healthcare system that NA people are required to be adaptive and thus configure their entire lives around this system. Pursuance of investigating the health information seeking behaviors requires research methods and methodologies that are Indigenous led and guided by NA values and epistemologies. It is through my poster presentation I invite dialogue to better understand Native American health information seeking behaviors through a strength-based lens.

Series/Report Name or Number

Proceedings of the ALISE Annual Conference, 2023

Type of Resource

text

Language

eng

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/123080

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21900/j.alise.2023.1306

Copyright and License Information

• Copyright 2023 Tessa R. Campbell
• This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

Owning Collections