How does national culture affect citizens’ rights of access to personal health information and informed consent?

Abstract

Two widely discussed and debated aspects of health law literature are ‘informed’ consent to medical treatment and the right of access to personal health information. Both are tied to the larger subject of patients’ rights, including the right to privacy. This article looks at the issue of informed consent internationally, and goes further to explain some of the inequalities across the world with respect to informed consent and patients’ rights legislation via an analysis of the take-up of key legislative attributes in patient consent. Specifically, the effect that national culture, as defined by the GLOBE variables, has on the rate and pattern of adoption of these consent elements is analysed using binary logistic regression to provide evidence of the existence or otherwise of a cultural predicate of the legislative approach. The article concludes by outlining the challenges presented by these differences.