A Comparative Study of Sources of Health Information and Access to Preventive Care Among Low Income Chronic Drug Users

Abstract

Much of health research that examines patterns of health utilization for chronic drug users fails to account for the role of media use and health information seeking. This paper suggests that the nature of drug use is associated with a decreased health orientation that is manifested in media selection and consumption. A comparative analysis was conducted to examine: (1) the differential health perceptions as a function of drug use, (2) the sources of information used, and (3) the relationship between sources of information and primary health care access among chronic users of illicit drugs and socio-demographically similar persons who are not chronic drug users. Results point to both common as well as differential patterns of health information sources. Logistic regression analysis found that medically related sources such as doctors and pamphlets are important sources associated with increased primary care. Important implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• Sources of Information
• Health Information
• Chronic Drug Use
• Access to Health Care

Notes

Chi square tests of independence and oneway analysis of variance tests were performed to examine differences between groups. Because of page constraints, detailed percentage data were not made available in text but can be referenced in Table 1.

The HRSI was developed by the Department of Epidemiology's Comprehensive Drug Research Center and included demographic information, a drug use history, and lifetime and 12-month health histories. Included in the health history were questions about perceived access to primary health care and sources of health information. Because of page constraints additional detailed information about recruitment, screening and the HRSI have been published in other journals, please refer to Chitwood, Comerford, and McCoy (2002), and Chitwood et al. (2001).

Sex and race have traditionally been treated as control variables and we examined differences in our initial univariate analyses to develop the multivariate models. Analysis of the control variables of race and sex found that compared to Blacks, Hispanic and White respondents’ odds for accessing primary health care decreased (B=–0.91; OR=0.39; B=–0.95; OR=0.44, respectively). Females’ odds (B=0.44) were increased by a factor of 1.55 when compared to males.