Jasper Faber

This chapter is published as: Faber, J. S., Al-Dhahir, I., Reijnders, T., Chavannes, N. H., Evers, A. W. M., Kraal, J. J., van den Berg-Emons, H. J. G, & Visch, V. T (2021). Attitudes Toward Health, Healthcare, and eHealth of People with a Low Socioeconomic Status: A Community-Based Participatory Approach. Frontiers in Digital Health, 3. doi: 10.3389/ fdgth.2021.690182 All research data and code supporting the findings described in this chapter are available in 4TU. Centre for Research Data at 10.4121/7a2ca4e2-acca-4585-9d08-85d9f8139896 CHAPTER 2 Attitudes toward health, healthcare, and eHealth of people with a low socioeconomic position Building on the foundation in the introduction, this chapter delves into the first question of why eHealth interventions may be less successful for individuals with a low socioeconomic position (SEP). A limitation in existing research is its oversight of the target group’s perspectives. To address this, our study adopted a community-based participatory research approach, emphasizing the direct involvement of those with a low SEP. Through this, we aimed to understand the target group’s attitudes toward their health, healthcare, and eHealth. We present nine distinct profiles reflecting varied attitudes toward these areas, ultimately distilling them into two overarching attitudes: the “Optimistically Engaged” and “Doubtfully Disadvantaged”. Our findings suggest that the assumption of a uniform unwillingness among people with a low SEP to engage with healthy behavior and eHealth interventions may not be entirely accurate. Our research indicates that there is diversity in attitudes within the low-SEP group and that the majority exhibits a willingness to engage in health-promoting behaviors. This suggests that the issue could stem more from the design of interventions, which might not adequately address the diverse needs of the group, than an unwillingness to participate in eHealth and healthy behaviors.

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