Qualitative Health Communication

Editorial and call for papers: Approaches to Qualitative Health Communication

Matilde Nisbeth Brøgger, Jane Ege Møller — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Engage and withdraw: The role of peer-led online communities in the configuration of knowledge on chronic illness

Amanda Karlsson, Carsten Stage , Loni Ledderer — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Background: Living with chronic conditions and the dependencies for continual treatment make some citizens turn to peer-led online communities (PLOCs) to seek care and information about their illness. Aim: This article explores the role of PLOCs in the configuration of knowledge on chronic illness and unfolds how temporality of illness influences this process. Methods: A qualitative analysis using a thematic coding process was performed on transcripts from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2022 with people living with various physical chronic conditions and using PLOCs. Within the theme of ‘knowledge’, three sub-themes were identified: peer, medical, and experiential knowledge. Results: The article finds that knowledge on chronic illness is configured by (1) information from peers in PLOCs, (2) medical expertise from doctors and (3) own experiential knowledge. Discussion: The article further discusses how this configuration of knowledge is influenced by temporality and thus is steered by the onset of a diagnosis. Conclusion: The PLOCs play a significant role at the onset of a diagnosis and make a ‘new chronic patient’ engage more, while an ‘experienced patient’ tends to withdraw from PLOCs. The article concludes by outlining the potentials of recognizing PLOCs as spaces where the joining together of various knowledge forms is made possible.

The discursive construction of person-centredness in online information leaflets addressed to patients with cancer

Aase Marie Ottesen, Jeanne Strunck — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Background: This article is part of a project that examines the discursive constructions of the concepts, ‘patient’ and ‘patient identity’ in documents regarding national laws and steering documents, as well as regional steering documents, and how these constructions appear in online patient information leaflets. Aim: The focus of the article is whether person-centredness as an approach to the patient is prevalent in the discourses found in regional online materials for cancer patients in Denmark. Methods: The study uses a mixed method approach analysing the data within a critical discourse analytical framework, combined with quantitative analyses conducted using the corpus analysis software program, AntConc. Results: The present study reveals that the patient’s scope of action is most often limited in patient information leaflets. Patients are positioned as objects for the actions of the healthcare staff even though different constructions of person-centredness are present. Discussion: A person-centred culture must also be present in the way the professional staff and management communicate and cooperate. Conclusions: As a layperson and object, the patient is given an identity as a medical case, not as an involved and actively participating person. There are only minor signs of a person-centred approach.

Enacting communication cycles after prediabetes: Mothers’ stories of diabetes risk and seeking support

Lauren A. Cafferty, Carla L. Fisher, Christy J. W. Ledford — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Background: Diabetes is a family systems experience of multiple intergenerational relationships. Communicating about diabetes as a familial risk helps individuals perceive greater control over preventing diabetes. Aim: The present study investigates how mothers disclose their prediabetes to their family and the precipitating family communication, with the goal to interrupt the multigenerational legacy of diabetes. Method: Data were collected from a Family Medicine outpatient clinic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to illicit information about mother-child communication about diabetes. Sort and Sift, Think and Shift analysis provided rich descriptions of mothers’ experiences. Results: The sample consisted of 9 women with prediabetes, aged 42-70, who had at least one child. Eight participants described at least 2 generations of family members with a diabetes-related diagnosis (prediabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and gestational diabetes). First, we present two contextual factors that preexisted the prediabetes diagnosis, which influenced the disclosure decision: general health communication approach and personal evaluation of diabetes. Second, we present the communication cycles that supported self-management. Discussion: Continual communication cycles with family and clinicians can support mothers with prediabetes to enact self-management behaviors and delay the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: Mothers need family members to respond favorably to complete a positive communication cycle that can generate continuous emotional, social, and instrumental support.

Communicating the experience of living with chronic pain: The role of non-verbal communication and the power of lessons learned

Karin L. Becker — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Background: Chronic pain is hard to communicate due to its invisible, inaudible, and imprecise nature. Outside of pain scales that try to quantify pain, individuals with chronic pain have a hard time expressing it, yet pain management relies on effective communication. This study explores how women with chronic pain enrolled in an online therapeutic writing workshop communicate the experience of living with chronic pain to fellow sufferers. Methods: A six-week online therapeutic writing workshop was conducted with individuals with chronic pain who responded to weekly creative writing prompts that focused on mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy strategies including attention, emotional regulation, and examining thoughts and attitudes. Participants were recruited by their primary care provider; seven participants enrolled. All posts were aggregated and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Data analysis from participants’ posts reveal two interpretive repertoires including physical evidence of pain where participants expressed visible impacts of pain occurring in their home environments and communicated non-verbally in gestures and behaviors. Secondly, the theme of lessons learned from living with pain emerged including enhanced empathy, the need for self-care, and sharing coping skills. Conclusion: This study extends our understanding of the experience of living with chronic pain outside of a medical context by providing new insights gained from their creative writing responses. The online therapeutic writing workshop fostered a community of support where participants were empowered to express their pain, identify their pain behaviors, and invite cognitive restructuring to learn from their pain.

Gastrointestinal specialist perspectives on telehealth consultations

Amy D. Nguyen, Sarah J. White, Sadhvi S.S. Naresh, John A Cartmill — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Background: Telehealth, care delivered via phone or video call, affects the delivery of healthcare, and this is reflected in provider and patient satisfaction. Aim: The aim of this study was to ascertain medical specialists’ experiences using telehealth in a single specialty group, gastroenterology. Methods: Gastrointestinal specialists known to the research team were invited to six semi-structured, one-on-one interviews conducted (by telephone) during the height of COVID-19 imposed telehealth practice. Specialists were asked about their experiences using telehealth. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed independently by two reviewers to identify major themes. Results: The absence of visual cues (when over the telephone) and limited physical examination in telehealth in general were perceived as major barriers for specialist telehealth consultations. Convenient for straightforward situations where relationships were already established, the complexity inherent in a specialist review challenged the telehealth medium. Discussion: Specialists acknowledged the pragmatism of telehealth in some situations, but emphasised logistical, technical, and communication barriers to using telehealth. Conclusions: Awareness of these limitations will direct training for clinicians and allied staff to better triage situations suited to a medium where neither participant are co-located.