Health and health care around the world: an introduction to the 2021 ISSP health and health care module

Health and health care represent a critical concern for the public and policymakers across the world. The 2021 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Health and Health Care II module offers a comprehensive cross-national assessment of public attitudes toward health and health care, including health status, health behaviors, and evaluations of health systems across 34 countries. This article introduces the development and content of the 2021 module, including new themes on eHealth and ePatients, attitudes toward vaccination, and COVID-19. To demonstrate the analytical potential of the dataset, it presents descriptive findings from the eHealth and ePatients section. The results reveal substantial cross-national variation in the use of the internet for health information, perceived behavioral effects of online resources, and the extent to which digital information is used to assess medical advice and guide decision-making..