Race, Ethnicity, Language, Social Class, and Health Communication Inequalities: A Nationally-Representative Cross-Sectional Study

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dc.contributor.authorvon Elm, Erik
dc.contributor.authorViswanath, Kasisomayajula
dc.contributor.authorAckerson, Leland K.
dc.date.accessioned2019-08-14T15:03:29Z
dc.date.available2019-08-14T15:03:29Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.description.abstractBACKGROUND: While mass media communications can be an important source of health information, there are substantial social disparities in health knowledge that may be related to media use. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the use of cancer-related health communications is patterned by race, ethnicity, language, and social class. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a nationally-representative cross-sectional telephone survey, 5,187 U.S. adults provided information about demographic characteristics, cancer information seeking, and attention to and trust in health information from television, radio, newspaper, magazines, and the Internet. Cancer information seeking was lowest among Spanish-speaking Hispanics (odds ratio: 0.42; 95% confidence interval: 0.28-0.63) compared to non-Hispanic whites. Spanish-speaking Hispanics were more likely than non-Hispanic whites to pay attention to (odds ratio: 3.10; 95% confidence interval: 2.07-4.66) and trust (odds ratio: 2.61; 95% confidence interval: 1.53-4.47) health messages from the radio. Non-Hispanic blacks were more likely than non-Hispanic whites to pay attention to (odds ratio: 2.39; 95% confidence interval: 1.88-3.04) and trust (odds ratio: 2.16; 95% confidence interval: 1.61-2.90) health messages on television. Those who were college graduates tended to pay more attention to health information from newspapers (odds ratio: 1.98; 95% confidence interval: 1.42-2.75), magazines (odds ratio: 1.86; 95% confidence interval: 1.32-2.60), and the Internet (odds ratio: 4.74; 95% confidence interval: 2.70-8.31) and had less trust in cancer-related health information from television (odds ratio: 0.44; 95% confidence interval: 0.32-0.62) and radio (odds ratio: 0.54; 95% confidence interval: 0.34-0.86) compared to those who were not high school graduates. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Health media use is patterned by race, ethnicity, language and social class. Providing greater access to and enhancing the quality of health media by taking into account factors associated with social determinants may contribute to addressing social disparities in health.
dc.description.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0014550
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/p6bc-4vwu
dc.identifier.citationvon Elm, Erik and Viswanath, Kasisomayajula and Ackerson, Leland K. (2011) Race, Ethnicity, Language, Social Class, and Health Communication Inequalities: A Nationally-Representative Cross-Sectional Study. PLoS ONE, 6 (1). e14550.
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.otherEprint ID 2837
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/23477
dc.subjectHealth Equity
dc.subjectDisparities
dc.subjectstudies
dc.titleRace, Ethnicity, Language, Social Class, and Health Communication Inequalities: A Nationally-Representative Cross-Sectional Study
dc.typeArticle

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