What women want

: an introductory exploration into choice of female healthcare services

Abstract

There has been a recent increase in female healthcare applications, but limited research on factors governing their use and comparative studies with physical clinics. This study aims to analyse the effect of psychological distance and social identity on attitudes to female healthcare services. We compare in-person consultations (offline service) with menstrual-tracking apps (online service). In Study A we distinguish between health service delivery modalities1 as online or offline. We compare the effect of psychological distance from the health service on social proximity, perceived likelihood of fitting the described scenario and construal level. In Study B we manipulate the health service and social identity of the doctors to measure how these impact help-seeking, goal setting and social distance in black women. Study A results suggest that higher distance from the health service leads to decreased social proximity and perceived likelihood of the situation, but no change in construal level. In Study B we found that shared social identity and face-to-face health service increases help-seeking behaviour and decreases social distance but has no effect on the abstraction of goals. We suggest that there is a need for higher availability of face-to-face health services and for mechanisms to increase help-seeking through mobile apps in female healthcare.

Date of Award	1 Feb 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Sofia Jacinto (Supervisor)