Kaitlin L.
Costello

Kaitlin Costello studies how patients with chronic illnesses seek out, use, and disclose health information in online communities, on social media, and in clinical settings. They also investigate how patients assess the relevance and credibility of health information in these contexts. Their research program advances the use of qualitative methods and the constructivist grounded theory methodology to develop and extend theory in library and information science. Costello regularly teaches classes in human information behavior, health sciences information, and algorithms and society at Rutgers.

Costello studies health information behavior and practice in social settings. Their work focuses on how patients diagnosed with chronic health conditions use the internet to search for health information, how patients assess the relevance of health information provided by other patients, and how patients communicate about this information with their healthcare providers. They have conducted studies on a wide range of topics, including (but not limited to):

• People’s attitudes towards contact tracing and digital phenotyping in mental health;
• The health information seeking behaviors of patients on dialysis;
• Personal health information sharing and disclosure on social media;
• Emotional labor and its relationship to social constructions of relevance and credibility;
• Health information quality in online support groups for chronic pain;
• Using social media to find a kidney donor.

Costello also advances the use of the constructivist grounded theory methodology in library and information science. Their work focuses on how feminist technoscience can guide the methodological choices we make as researchers when studying sociotechnical phenomena, like information behaviors and practices. They regularly conduct workshops and give lectures on the constructivist grounded theory methodology and qualitative methods.