Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on LGBT studies
Year: 2023
DOI:
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The Online Health Information Anxiety of the Ghanaian Lgbtqi+ Community Members: A Case Study of the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly
Abubakari, Iddirisu
ABSTRACT:
In homophobic societies, it is often opined that the online technology of medical consultancy could promote quality health care among LGBTQI members in the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly. The LGBTQI+ communities’ challenges within the online medical consultancies could often influence suicidal attempts, trauma, and fear of attack in personal health information needs. Online health information anxiety is a stressful phenomenon that hinders the end user’s ease of access to the web information seekers’ health information needs. The study objectives were: To examine the existence and presence of health information anxiety among same-sex groups of people. To find out the feelings and experiences of online health information anxiety. To establish the causes of online health information anxiety among LGBTQI+ members. To determine the possible interventions to minimize the phenomenon of online health information anxiety.
Research Approach: In a descriptive research design, the justification behind the evaluative study through the survey of the closed-ended questionnaire is to find out the existence of online health information anxiety, experiences, feelings, causes, and suggested interventions to address the challenges. The population consisted of 20 LGBTQI+ members who were all willing to serve as respondents to the survey. The sampling technique that was considered to recruit the respondents of the study was snowball since it was illegal to disclose one’s sexual orientation in the Ghanaian community and could be done by members taking the lead in the study confidential.
Findings and Interpretation of result: In the survey study, it was discovered that 17 (85%) respondents had some experiences of web health information anxiety while 2(10%) respondents were uncertain, and 2(10%) respondents were not experiencing any anxiety. The causes of the phenomena were undercovered as low /inexperience knowledge of accessing online health consultancies (180, 100%) as the major factor while discrimination received 9(45%) responses which was the minor factor that caused online health information anxiety among the LGBTQI+ community. The study also discovered the suggested interventions to address the phenomenon. To begin with, the activities of training and workshops for health professionals and community members to develop their competencies in seeking access to good health care. The decision to resource and upgrade both online and manual health information infrastructural which had all 20(100%) responses as the major suggestions to address the circumstance while all other recommended interventions received over 50% responses as solutions to address the challenges of online health information anxiety.
The study, in conclusion, reiterated that there was a need to include online health information literacy skills modules into the academic curriculum of schools to help minimize the menace of online health information anxiety. Further research was recommended into the study phenomenon of online medical service providers for the LGBTQI+ community in the homophobic community.
keywords: Health information anxiety, trauma, fear of attack, discrimination, online identity theft, suicidal attempts, identity hide and seek