Dear HIFA colleagues,
We have had a few contriibutions on this question (below) but we would welcome more. Can you think of an example where you, a friend, or a patient revealed the impact of inforamtion on health behaviour?
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Diya Banerjee Sur (India): “In the villages where I work, awareness sessions have spread like wildfire, and women are coming in large numbers for screening and treatment.”
In contrast: “On the contrary, due to the wrong belief about the HPV vaccine, girls of that age are refusing to take the vaccine.”
Dr Anu Mary Oommen (India): “We have seen that those who undergo follow-up procedures like colposcopic biopsy have pain during the procedure. When others hear this information, they get worried about either screening or attending follow-up.”
Frank Brightwell (Dominican Republic): “For most of our patients that proactive, trusted, end-to-end care is what overcomes the fear: a woman reluctant to be ‘marked’ is reassured not by a poster but by a clinician she trusts, in her own language, over the years.”
“In our experience, it is this proactive care, and the trust built over years, that keeps misinformation from deciding whether a woman is screened.”
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Many thanks, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org