Can I have a volunteer to summarise this week's contributions? We don't need a long summary, just a list of the different topics people talked about and the key points we learned. I will help if you would like to email me a draft.
If you'd like to do it, post a message to grab the slot. Rememebr everyone is going to do one summary!
Summary of week 2
This week’s seminar topic of discussion was the task of developing a social qualitative research study concerning a health issue by using interviews as the method of data collection. An array of thought-provoking topics were discussed and covered alcohol consumption and changing drinking trends, anorexia nervosa, COPD, diabetes, management of eczema, dengue fever, sickle cell disease, alcohol and student culture, AIDS, child sexual abuse, cystic fibrosis and non-adherence in patients with type 2 diabetes. A variety of questions were used to establish an understanding of an individual’s thought process in regards to their health. These included areas such as social stigma, loss of self, adherence to medication and understanding a diagnosis.
Approaches to qualitative research varied with a range of open and closed questions being used. The majority of interviews were similarly set out in a semi structured fashion. The questions shared the commonality of being precise, simple and clear and practically would seem to be successful in gathering descriptive information. The aim of qualitative research in our remit, compared to other forms of research, is that it is patient-centred in order to explores issues and understand phenomena in social and cultural contexts. A great example of this is the post on ‘Non-adherence in patients with type 2 diabetes’. The aims of the research for this particular topic are clear: to elicit information concerning a patient’s understanding of diabetes and reasoning behind non-adherence of medication. A good range of open and simple questions are used to explore patient views and addresses important issues in relation to this condition.
Great summary Tahir, thank you for doing this.
