Health consumerism is a movement which advocates patients’ involvement in their own health care

Health care

Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

decisions. It is a movement from the “doctor says/patient does” model to a partnership model. Health consumerism tries to encourage health information empowerment and the transfer of knowledge so that patients can be informed and therefore more involved in the decision-making process. It also attempts to promote public understanding of basic organ function, the processes of chronic disease, and the beginnings of how to best prevent these diseases.