Dataset Information

Following celebrities’ medical advice: meta-narrative analysis

ABSTRACT: Objective To synthesise what is known about how celebrities influence people’s decisions on health. Design Meta-narrative analysis of economics, marketing, psychology, and sociology literatures. Data sources Systematic searches of electronic databases: BusinessSource Complete (1886-), Communication & Mass Media Complete (1915-), Humanities Abstracts (1984-), ProQuest Political Science (1985-), PsycINFO (1806-), PubMed (1966-), and Sociology Abstracts (1952-). Inclusion criteria Studies discussing mechanisms of celebrities’ influence on people in any context. Results Economics literature shows that celebrity endorsements act as signals of credibility that differentiate products or ideas from competitors and can catalyse herd behaviour. Marketing studies show that celebrities transfer their desirable attributes to products and use their success to boost their perceived credibility. Psychology shows that people are classically conditioned to react positively to the advice of celebrities, experience cognitive dissonance if they do not, and are influenced by congruencies with their self conceptions. Sociology helps explain the spread of celebrity medical advice as a contagion that diffuses through social networks and people’s desire to acquire celebrities’ social capital. Conclusions The influence of celebrity status is a deeply rooted process that can be harnessed for good or abused for harm. A better understanding of celebrity can empower health professionals to take this phenomenon seriously and use patient encounters to educate the public about sources of health information and their trustworthiness. Public health authorities can use these insights to implement regulations and restrictions on celebrity endorsements and design counter marketing initiatives—perhaps even partnering with celebrities—to discredit bogus medical advice while promoting evidence based practices.

SUBMITTER: Hoffman S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3898586 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:The current study aims to examine the discourse patterns and strategies of advice-seeking and advice-giving through Arabic computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the medical context. The contribution of this study lies in examining and analyzing the discourse patterns of CMC between patients and doctors in Arabic, how these patterns help doctors understand the advice sought and inquiries made by their patients, and how they help patients understand the comments made by their doctors on their inquiries. The data consist of 300 messages categorized into 150 advice-seeking (postings) and 150 advice-response (replies) messages. They were manually collected from a public medical website by copying and pasting them into an Excel spreadsheet for coding and statistical analyses. Two models were used to analyze the speech acts of advice. Morrow's model was used for advice-seeking, while Hinkel's taxonomy was used for advice responses, after some modifications were made to both models. The findings revealed that advice-seeking and advice-response messages had three parts: opening, middle, and closing. The study revealed that both patients and doctors used the opening and closing parts occasionally, unlike the middle part, which was used more often. For advice-seeking, describing the medical problem was the most frequent strategy used by patients when they asked for advice, followed by yes/no questions. These types of strategies were used in advice-seeking more frequently than others. Additionally, it was found that asking yes/no questions and describing the medical problem was the most frequent compound strategy used by patients seeking advice. However, for advice responses, the results revealed that giving clarification/information was the most frequent strategy used by doctors, followed by direct advice. When compared with other types, these two types were used frequently in the advice responses. The results also demonstrated that giving clarification/information and direct advice was the most frequent compound strategy used by doctors in advice responses.

Project description:BackgroundPhysicians may counsel patients who leave against medical advice (AMA) that insurance will not pay for their care. However, it is unclear whether insurers deny payment for hospitalization in these cases.ObjectiveTo review whether insurers denied payment for patients discharged AMA and assess physician beliefs and counseling practices when patients leave AMA.DesignRetrospective cohort of medical inpatients from 2001 to 2010; cross-sectional survey of physician beliefs and counseling practices for AMA patients in 2010.ParticipantsPatients who left AMA from 2001 to 2010, internal medicine residents and attendings at a single academic institution, and a convenience sample of residents from 13 Illinois hospitals in June 2010.Main measuresPercent of AMA patients for which insurance denied payment, percent of physicians who agreed insurance denies payment for patients who leave AMA and who counsel patients leaving AMA they are financially responsible.Key resultsOf 46,319 patients admitted from 2001 to 2010, 526 (1.1%) patients left AMA. Among insured patients, payment was refused in 4.1% of cases. Reasons for refusal were largely administrative (wrong name, etc.). No cases of payment refusal were because patient left AMA. Nevertheless, most residents (68.6%) and nearly half of attendings (43.9%) believed insurance denies payment when a patient leaves AMA. Attendings who believed that insurance denied payment were more likely to report informing AMA patients they may be held financially responsible (mean 4.2 vs. 1.7 on a Likert 1-5 scale, in which 5 is "always" inform, p < 0.001). This relationship was not observed among residents. The most common reason for counseling patients was "so they will reconsider staying in the hospital" (84.8% residents, 66.7% attendings, p = 0.008)ConclusionsContrary to popular belief, we found no evidence that insurance denied payment for patients leaving AMA. Residency programs and hospitals should ensure that patients are not misinformed.

Dataset Information

Following celebrities’ medical advice: meta-narrative analysis

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets