“I see it now”: Using photo elicitation to understand chronic illness self-management

Abstract

Background How people integrate self-management into daily life remains underexamined, and such processes are difficult to elicit through traditional approaches used to understand human occupation. Purpose This paper will provide a brief overview of one visual research method, photo elicitation, that holds promise for studying self-management of health behaviours and will present findings from an analysis of how the use of photo elicitation interviews contributed additional insights into self-management beyond those generated from the data collected through the other methods used in the study. Method A qualitative, multiple-methods, multiple-case study was conducted with a purposive sample of 10 low-income women ages 40 to 64 with type 2 diabetes. Findings The photo elicitation interviews contributed insights beyond those generated from other study methods about how individuals viewed their self-management behaviours and how occupations changed across time. Implications Photo elicitation is a valuable research method for better understanding clients' chronic illness self-management practices.

Using Visual Methods to Understand Physical Activity Maintenance following Cardiac Rehabilitation

“…The potential for using visual methods with interviews has been gaining increased attention [ 34 , 35 ]. Photographs have been used in conjunction with interviews to stimulate enriched storytelling of health-related experiences such as understanding self-management in chronic illness [ 36 ] and the experience of homelessness [ 37 ]. In the context of physical activity, there are a handful of studies in which researchers have used photo-elicitation as a means to understand the factors influencing physical activity and health behaviour change [ 33 , 38 – 41 ].…”

Challenges to developing diabetes self-management skills in a low-income sample in North Carolina, USA

“…Methods included having each participant complete the Diabetes Care Profile (Fitzgerald et al . ), participate in a semi‐structured interview, photograph aspects of their daily life they associated with DSM (past and present) and participate in a photo‐elicitation interview (Harper , Fritz & Lysack ), and complete a time‐geographic diary (TGD) with participation in a subsequent TGD interview (Pentland & Harvey , Michelson , Fritz ). Each participant took between 5 and 16 weeks to complete data collection and was compensated one $100.00 (visa gift card) for their time and effort.…”

“…Photo elicitation involves inserting photographic material (participant or researcher generated) into a research interview (Harper ). Photo elicitation was used in the study to better understand how the people, places and activities inherent in daily routines influenced participants’ self‐management (Fritz & Lysack ). To complete the photography and the photo‐elicitation component, participants were given a disposable camera (27 exposures), a prepaid mailer for returning the camera, trained on how to use the camera if needed, and instructed to: ‘take photographs of the things you associate with DSM throughout the following 2 weeks’.…”

Participant-driven photo-elicitation in library settings: A methodological discussion

“…Photo-elicitation has been used to explore the experience of NGO field workers in international development (Shankar, 2016), teachers' perceptions of school children (Stockall & Davis, 2011), patient experiences in healthcare (e.g. Fritz & Lysack, 2014;Kantrowitz-Gordon & Vandermause, 2016), land management practices (Kong et al, 2015), outdoor adventure experiences (Loeffler, 2004), studying sport and exercise (Curry, 1986;Mills & Hoeber, 2013) and customer behaviour in a retail context (Petermans, Kent & Van Cleempoel, 2014). These studies are just a few examples of a vast and growing cross-disciplinary literature.…”