Health privacy as sociotechnical capital

This article identified sociodemographic factors affecting privacy surrounding health data and explored the impact of health privacy capital on the use of health-related digital technologies and related perceptions. To do so, we adopted two perspectives, (a) an individual motivational perspective derived from uses and gratifications approach and (b) a societal contextual approach from social stratification, conceptualizing health privacy as capital with multifaceted sociotechnical assets. Health privacy capital was analyzed relative to demographic, social-contextual, and medical condition variables, using the 2014 Health Information National Trends (HINTS) Survey (n = 3212). Findings confirmed three key facets of health privacy capital-awareness of privacy, attitude toward the importance of privacy and data sharing, and confidence in the ability to maintain privacy-and multivariate regression analyses showed positive relationships between privacy capital and engagement as well as outcomes related to health-related digital technology. On the other hand, our analysis found that the development of health privacy capital is susceptible to sociodemographic disparities. For instance, a higher level of education was related to all three dimensions of health privacy capital. Interactions between education and health privacy confidence were also significant in both dimensions of health outcomes, indicating that the positive impact of health privacy confidence is moderated by the lower level of education. Practical implications for patients and healthcare professionals are discussed.