A Relational Perspective on HIV/AIDS Information Behaviour in Rural Canada

To manage their health effectively, persons living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) and their caregivers require reliable, up-to-date information about HIV/AIDS and its treatment. Access to timely health information is often a challenge for residents of remote or sparsely populated communities. In this paper we present findings from a research project conducted in three rural regions of Canada in which we investigated how rural PHAs, along with their formal and informal caregivers, exchange HIV/AIDS-related information and support. In the analysis of results, we use a conceptual framework taken from the literature of organizational learning. In particular, we consider how ideas about person-to-person information exchange that have emerged from social network studies in business settings, as well as how Etienne Wenger's ideas about communities of practice apply to the health information behaviour of rural PHAs and their caregivers. The patterns of experience reported by study respondents illustrate the power of access to timely support from trusted informants, as well as the deepening of knowledge at the community level when interpersonal connections are consciously formed and maintained.