Bringing the perspective of consumer communities to the evaluation of health empowerment programs. An ethnography of alternative medicine consumers[L'apport de la perspective des communautés de consommation à l'évaluation des programmes de responsabilisation en santé. Une ethnographie des consommateurs de médecines alternatives]

Patient empowerment programs, which encourage individuals to take charge of their own care, are rarely assessed from the perspective of consumption communities. These communities, which product cultures, may perform these incentives and adopt unexpected health behaviors. We propose an ethnography of alternative medicine consumption communities. Our study shows that consumers consider themselves responsible for their care, but conventional medicine is perceived as a barrier to the deployment of this responsibility; on the contrary, alternative medicines offers practical frameworks for exercising their health by themselves. Thus, we indicate the relevance of evaluating health empowerment programs through the cultural study of consumer behaviour.