Topic on A doctor as empowerment of women
Answers
Today, women empowering is an important issue. Several methods have been introduced to empower women. Health information seeking is one of the most important activities in this regard. A wide range of capabilities have been reported as outcomes of health information seeking in several studies. As health information seeking is developed within personal-social interactions and also the health system context, it seems that the qualitative paradigm is appropriate to use in studies in this regard. This study aimed to explore how women’s empowerment through health information seeking is done.ntroduction
Empowering women is an important subject of today’s world. The term “empowered” refers to the possession of legal power or autonomy to act.1 Empowerment is a process through which individuals, societies, and organizations gain the control of their important matters.2 The aim of moving toward empowerment is to acquire the necessary activities in order to prevent the threats and improve the positive aspects of life.3 Acquisition of such power is based on the knowledge and skills and promotes the quality of life. Moreover, it facilitates the ability to choose appropriate strategies for controlling the resources required for reaching favorable consequences.4
Previous studies showed that empowerment of patients resulted in favorable health outcomes,5 such as increased power of decision-making, freedom for making choices and accepting the responsibility,6 developed trust in relations, informed choice,7 facilitation of adaptation and well-being, hopefulness, increased speed of personal development, awareness of one’s own world, identification of one’s own strengths and abilities, feeling more powerful, higher self-confidence, higher personal satisfaction, higher self-efficacy, and eventually, and improved quality of life.8
Based on available reports, there are various methods for empowering women, and the most important methods include the economic independence,9 enhancement of skills for information technology and communication10 and promotion of health knowledge.11 Health information seeking behaviors can promote health knowledge and, consequently, formulate the judgments, beliefs, and attitudes toward healthy behaviors and, eventually, acquisition of adequate knowledge for identifying the alternatives and available resources for doing different activities and taking into account the positive and negative aspects of issues.12 In this respect, it is necessary to empower patients toward acquiring, processing, and understanding the basic health information.13
Regarding the key role of women in improvement of lifestyle and, consequently, the community health, the promotion of women’s health information is a fundamental strategy for empowering them.14 The available literature in this regard mentioned various capabilities as the outcomes of seeking health information. These capabilities include the contribution to medical decision-making,15 better adaptation, lower levels of stress, receiving higher social support, and reaching favorable changes in lifestyle.16 However, few studies have been performed on seeking health information in general and capabilities acquired following health information seeking behaviors in particular in Iran. The available reports in this regard are limited only to the needs, motivations, and barriers to seeking health information of patients with heart diseases.17
Considering that the process of seeking health information is developed within personal-social interactions and also the health system, it seems appropriate to use the qualitative paradigm in studies in this regard. As different studies have introduced women as more active seekers compared to men,18 this study focused on women.
This study was conducted to discover women’s empowerment through seeking health information in order to assist healthcare providers to identify and then plan for achieving favorable empowerments related to health.