Background: eHealth is developing rapidly and brings with it a promise to reduce social health inequalities (SHIs). Yet, it appears that it also has the potential to increase them. Objectives: The general objective of this review was to set out how to ensure that eHealth contributes to reducing SHIs rather than exacerbating them. This review has three objectives: (1) identifying characteristics of people at risk of experiencing social inequality in health; (2) determining the possibilities of developing eHealth tools that avoid increasing SHI; and (3) modeling the process of using an eHealth tool by people vulnerable to SHI. Methods: Following the EPPI approach (Evidence for Policy and Practice of Information of the Institute of Education at the University of London), two databases were searched for the terms SHIs and eHealth and their derivatives in titles and abstracts. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed articles were included and evaluated. The software NVivo (QSR International) was employed to extract the data and allow for a metasynthesis of the data. Results: Of the 73 articles retained, 10 were theoretical, 7 were from reviews, and 56 were based on empirical studies. Of the latter, 40 used a quantitative approach, 8 used a qualitative approach, 4 used mixed methods approach, and only 4 were based on participatory research-action approach. The digital divide in eHealth is a serious barrier and contributes greatly to SHI. Ethnicity and low income are the most commonly used characteristics to identify people at risk of SHI. The most promising actions for reducing SHI via eHealth are to aim for universal access to the tool of eHealth, become aware of users’ literacy level, create eHealth tools that respect the cultural attributes of future users, and encourage the participation of people at risk of SHI. Conclusions: eHealth has the potential to widen the gulf between those at risk of SHI and the rest of the population. The widespread expansion of eHealth technologies calls for rigorous consideration of interventions, which are not likely to exacerbate SHI. [J Med Internet Res 2017;19(4):e136]

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Social Health Inequalities and eHealth: A Literature Review With Qualitative Synthesis of Theoretical and Empirical Studies

We draw on the geographical concepts of social space, territoriality, and distantiation to examine an apparent tension inherent in telework: i.e., using information and communication technologies to work away from traditional workplaces can give employees a greater sense of autonomy while simultaneously placing new constraints on the way they conduct themselves in settings that were previously beyond the reach of managerial control. We draw on a longitudinal case study of a Belgian biopharmaceutical company to show how technical and professional teleworkers developed broadly similar strategies of spatiotemporal scaling to cope with this tension. We conclude by considering how these scaling strategies allowed employees to cope with the demands of ‘hybrid’ work that is conducted both at home and in traditional settings.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind in a New World of Work? Autonomy, Control, and Spatiotemporal Scaling in Telework:

A growing number of patients search for medical information on the Internet. Understanding how they use the Internet is important, as this might impact their health, patient-practitioner roles, and general health care provision. In this article, we illustrate the motives of online health information seeking in the context of the doctor-patient relationship in Switzerland. We conducted semistructured interviews with patients who searched for health information online before or after a medical consultation. Findings suggest that patients searched for health information online to achieve the goals of preparing for the consultation, complementing it, validating it, and/or challenging its outcome. The initial motivations for online health information seeking are identified in the needs for acknowledgment, reduction of uncertainty, and perspective. Searching health information online was also encouraged by personal and contextual factors, that is, a person's sense of self-responsibility and the opportunity to use the Internet. Based on these results, we argue that online health information seeking is less concerned with what happens during the consultation than with what happens before or after it, in the sociocultural context.

Online Health Information Seeking in the Context of the Medical Consultation in Switzerland

Working with interpreters in health care: a systematic review and meta-ethnography of qualitative studies.

Le codage a visee theorique est un processus qui repose sur des operations de categorisation et d'interpretation des donnees qualitatives. Certaines pratiques de codage comme la comparaison constante, l'emploi des memos ou encore la progression interpretative concourent a la theorisation. Ces methodes sont presentees, discutees en regard de l'evaluation et illustrees a l'aide d'un exemple.

Le codage à visée théorique

Les methodes qualitatives occupent une place grandissante en sciences humaines et sociales, constituant depuis leurs origines americaines un courant aussi riche que diversifie.Cet ouvrage, veritable manuel, permet d’apprehender aussi bien l’histoire que les enjeux epistemologiques et applications pratiques de ces methodes dans leur diversite (analyses thematique, a l’aide des categories, en mode ecriture...).Reactualise dans cette 4e edition, il cible toute la fecondite du denominateur commun a ces methodes : une demarche rigoureuse de reformulation, d’explicitation ou de theorisation des donnees d’enquete participant de la decouverte et de la construction de sens.

Alex Mucchielli

Papers

L'analyse qualitative en sciences humaines et sociales

Les méthodes qualitatives

Les sciences de l'information et de la communication

Psychologie de la communication

L'analyse phénoménologique et structurale en sciences humaines