title: Telecommunications as a means to access health information: an exploratory study of migrants in australia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health policies increasingly promote e-health developments (e.g., consumers' access to online health information) to engage patients in their health care. In order to make these developments available for culturally and socially diverse communities, not only do Internet accessibility, literacy and e-health literacy need to be taken into account, but consumers' preferences and information seeking behaviours for accessing health information have also to be understood. These considerations are crucial when designing major new health policy directions, especially for migration destination countries with culturally diverse populations, such as Australia. The aim of this study was to examine how people from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) community use telecommunications (phone, mobile, Internet) to access health information.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case study was conducted using a questionnaire exploring the use of telecommunications to access health information among CALD people. The study was carried out at a community health centre in a socially and economically disadvantaged area of Melbourne, a city of 4 million people with a large CALD and migrant population. Questionnaires were translated into three languages and interpreters were provided. Fifty-nine questionnaires were completed by users of the community health centre.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most of the CALD participants did not have access to the Internet at home and very few reported using telecommunications to access health information.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of the study suggest that telecommunications are not necessarily perceived to be an important channel for accessing health information by members of the CALD community.
authors.affiliation: Australian Health Workforce Institute , Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Greenstock
authors.affiliation: University of Melbourne.
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Woodward-Kron
authors.affiliation: Australian Health Workforce Institute , Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Catriona
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.affiliation: Australian Health Workforce Institute , Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Amie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bingham
authors.affiliation: Australian Health Workforce Institute , Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Lucio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Naccarella
authors.affiliation: Australian Health Workforce Institute , Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.affiliation: Center for Culture, Ethnicity and Health, Melbourne.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morris
keywords: communication; community health; cultural diversity; migrant health; telecommunications