The topic that I chose last week was COPD…so I decided to carry on with that theme
The ‘typical’ COPD patient would be someone who is male, elderly and an ex- smoker, I think it would be interesting to see how the patient feels they are seen in society. Whether they feel stigmatized? Whether they feel restricted in society? It would also be interesting to see as to why the patient thinks they have the disease and to see how these beliefs vary within different cultures.
It’s not just a disease that limits you physically, but also emotionally, mentally and within aspects of work life, social life and home life, so perhaps another way of looking at it would be to assess what is the biggest impact COPD has had on them.
A lot of the information required from COPD patients here would require a good amount of time and for them to open up to me, therefore I would choose a qualitative interview.
What else would be interesting is to find out the difference between those patients in a hospital setting vs home setting, and men vs women.
Topics:
- Explore which aspects of life COPD effects the most
- What do patients understand about COPD
- How patients feel in society
- Do patients feel stigmatized
- How do views vary within women and men
- How do views vary within those patients in the hospital vs home
Questions:
- Tell me a bit about your COPD
- What do you understand about COPD?
- Do you, perhaps, understand how you developed COPD?
- How do you feel it has affected your life?
- Do you feel people view you differently?
- Has it limited you from doing things you would normally do?
- Do you feel as if you’re coping ok?
When asking women, it’s important to emphasize the question ‘do you feel people view you differently?’ to understand if there is stigma against male COPD patients.
