Beyond fatalism: Information overload as a mechanism to understand health disparities

A. Susana Ramírez and Kimberly Arellano Carmona

Social Science & Medicine, 2018, vol. 219, issue C, 11-18

Abstract: Fatalism – beliefs about the causes and controllability of disease – has been negatively associated with prevention behaviors. Fatalism has been suggested as a mechanism for health disparities because ethnic minorities are especially likely to hold fatalistic beliefs. However, the construct has been criticized: Fatalism fails to account for structural barriers to health faced by vulnerable populations that also score highly on measures of fatalism. Another critique suggests that operationalizations of fatalism expose communication failures: “Fatalism” rather reflects information overload from an environment riddled with misinformation and contradictions. This study aimed to expand understanding of one mechanism through which communication may contribute to disparities by considering the context of nutrition among bicultural Latinas, who face increased risk from dietary acculturation.

Keywords: Latino; Acculturation; Nutrition; Disparities; Fatalism; Communication inequality; Information overload (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:219:y:2018:i:c:p:11-18

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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.10.006

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