Healthcare reform information- seeking: Relationships with uncertainty, uncertainty discrepancy, and health self-efficacy Correspondence to: Jennifer L Bevan, One University Drive, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866, USA bevan@chapman.edu Nasim Mirkiani Thompson, Jennifer L Bevan, Lisa Sparks Chapman University/University of California, Irvine, CA, USA Abstract This exploratory study examines information- seeking about the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e. healthcare reform) in relation to the potential barriers of uncertainty, uncertainty discrepancy, and low health self-effi- cacy. Adult United States participants completed an anonymous online survey about their percep- tions and understanding of healthcare reform. Results confirmed recent literature, suggesting a complex relationship between information-seeking and uncertainty. Specifically, for this sample, signifi- cant positive relationships were observed between information-seeking about healthcare reform and uncertainty, uncertainty discrepancy, health self- efficacy. Further, uncertainty discrepancy was the potential barrier that accounted for the most var- iance in predicting information-seeking. Implications of these findings for improving public understanding of healthcare reform are discussed. Keywords: Healthcare reform, Uncertainty, Information seeking behavior, Human information processing, Self efficacy On 23 March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law. During the months leading up to and after the passage of this legislation (hereafter called healthcare reform), the American public was asked to consume, process, and evaluate a large amount of complex health-policy information. Healthcare reform is uniquely deserving of study from a perspective grounded in health communication research for three reasons. First, it will directly and concurrently impact both those who are ill and those who are well. Second, based on one’s current health status, healthcare reform information can include aspects of prevention, intervention, and/or treatment. Finally, the legislation’s partisan nature means that individual perceptions and understandings of it could be significantly affected by the often deep and divisive opinions of the political entities that oppose or support healthcare reform. Health information can be positive or negative 1,2 and information about healthcare reform certainly amplifies both in an effort to influence public opinion. Indeed, a 2010 Associated Press poll found that participants were often incorrect about what is and is not included in the healthcare reform bill as well as fairly uncertain about those judgments. 3 The complexities of accessing and understanding information certainly could be related to the multiple potential barriers that the public was experiencing about healthcare reform. As such, the present study explores the role of three variables that are consistently related to one another in health contexts and theoretical models in the context of public information-seeking about healthcare reform: uncertainty, uncertainty discre- pancy, and health self-efficacy. Information-seeking Information is ‘stimuli from a person’s environment that contribute to his or her knowledge or beliefs’ 4 (p. 259). Similar to the majority of information- seeking research, the act of information-seeking about the topic of healthcare reform is viewed here as ‘the purposive gathering of information’ 5 (p. 50). From this perspective, information-seeking is intentional, directed by goals, and involves behaviors such as asking questions and formally searching databases such as the Internet. 5 As health- care reform is a topic that was extensively covered 56 © W.S. Maney & Son Ltd 2012 DOI: 10.1179/1753807611Y.0000000016 Journal of Communication in Healthcare 2012 VOL. 5 NO. 1