Representations of heart failure in Internet patient information

Strong, Alison; Gilmour, Jean

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04921.x

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“… 15 16 There is little analysis to date of the way HF, specifically, is represented, apart from Strong and Gilmour’s study of internet texts. 17 They noted that biomedical discourses (of a medical/technical nature, such as we found) were dominant, but also noted narratives of ‘living with heart failure’, which were scarce in our data. They noted an absence of talk about the contribution of nurses and the ‘emotional and spiritual dimensions of heart failure’, which were also not noted in our data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Language matters: representations of ‘heart failure’ in English discourse—a large-scale linguistic study

et al. 2022

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AimsHeart failure (HF) has a lower public profile compared with other serious health conditions, notably cancer. This discourse analysis study investigates the extent to which HF is discussed in general contemporary English, UK parliamentary debates and the ways in which HF is framed in discussions, when compared with two other serious health conditions, cancer and dementia.MethodsThe Oxford English Corpus (OEC) of 21st century English-language texts (2 billion words) and the UK Hansard Reports of parliamentary debates from 1945 to early 2021 were used to investigate the relative frequencies, contexts and use of the terms ‘heart failure’, ‘cancer’ and ‘dementia’.ResultsIn the OEC, the term ‘heart failure’ occurs 4.26 times per million words (pmw), ‘dementia’ occurs 3.68 times pmw and ‘cancer’ occurs 81.96 times pmw. Cancer is talked about 19 times more often than HF and 22 times more often than dementia. These are disproportionately high in relation to actual incidence: annual cancer incidence is 1.8 times that of the other conditions; annual cancer mortality is two times that caused by coronary heart disease (including HF) or dementia.‘Heart failure’ is used much less than ‘cancer’ in UK parliamentary debates (House of Commons and House of Lords) between 1945 and early 2021, and less than ‘dementia’ from 1990 onwards. Moreover, HF is even mentioned much less than pot-holes in UK roads and pavements. In 2018, for example, ‘pot-hole/s’ were mentioned over 10 times pmw, 37 times more often than ‘heart failure’, mentioned 0.28 times pmw. Discussions of HF are comparatively technical and formulaic, lacking survivor narratives that occur in discussions of cancer.ConclusionsHF is underdiscussed in contemporary English compared with cancer and dementia and underdiscussed in UK parliamentary debates, even compared with the less-obviously life-threatening topic of pot-holes in roads and pavements.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Language matters: representations of ‘heart failure’ in English discourse—a large-scale linguistic study

et al. 2022

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“…Whether information obtained on the internet can help to address poor self-care requires further study. Toward that end, a review of information regarding heart failure on the internet suggested that many websites provide primarily biomedical information as opposed to information designed to be useful to patients and recommended that healthcare providers carefully consider the content of websites prior to recommending them to patients [ 25 ]. We are unaware of any trials of internet-delivered patient education for heart failure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Literacy and Global Cognitive Function Predict E-Mail but Not Internet Use in Heart Failure Patients

Schprechman

Gathright

Goldstein

et al. 2013

Nursing Research and Practice

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Background. The internet offers a potential for improving patient knowledge, and e-mail may be used in patient communication with providers. However, barriers to internet and e-mail use, such as low health literacy and cognitive impairment, may prevent patients from using technological resources. Purpose. We investigated whether health literacy, heart failure knowledge, and cognitive function were related to internet and e-mail use in older adults with heart failure (HF). Methods. Older adults (N = 119) with heart failure (69.84 ± 9.09 years) completed measures of health literacy, heart failure knowledge, cognitive functioning, and internet use in a cross-sectional study. Results. Internet and e-mail use were reported in 78.2% and 71.4% of this sample of patients with HF, respectively. Controlling for age and education, logistic regression analyses indicated that higher health literacy predicted e-mail (P < .05) but not internet use. Global cognitive function predicted e-mail (P < .05) but not internet use. Only 45% used the Internet to obtain information on HF and internet use was not associated with greater HF knowledge. Conclusions. The majority of HF patients use the internet and e-mail, but poor health literacy and cognitive impairment may prevent some patients from accessing these resources. Future studies that examine specific internet and email interventions to increase HF knowledge are needed.

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“…Moreover, since there was no personal information or participant involvement, ethics approval was not necessary for the study (Strong & Gilmour, 2009).…”

Section: Protection Of Human Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Web pages were printed and the researcher conducted a paper-and-pencil analysis of the websites, and later aggregated electronically (Hartley & Morphew, 2008;Mautner, 2005a;Strong & Gilmour, 2009). Screen captures of each of the Web pages over the two collection times occurred.…”

Section: Research Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representation on college and university websites

Saichaie¹

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The purpose of this study is to understand how colleges and universities use language to represent themselves on their institutional websites (official websites of higher education institutions). Organizations, like colleges and universities, seek to create and maintain a distinctive identity in an effort to build legitimacy (i.e., status) and attract students (i.e., tuition dollars). Institutional websites are increasingly important to the admissions and marketing practices of colleges and universities due to their ability to rapidly communicate a significant amount of content to a vast audience. Colleges and universities use language, whether textual (i.e., written) or visual (i.e., images), to position and differentiate themselves from other institutions and promote their efforts. This study utilizes Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the language on the institutional websites of 12 colleges and universities across a number of characteristics (e.g., control, type, geographic region, admissions selectivity) in the United States. Theoretically, CDA provides the means to examine everyday language in an effort to raise awareness about issues of inequality, such as access to education. Methodologically, Fairclough's approach to CDA has three dimensions of analysis. The first dimension is descriptive analysis where the intent is to describe the properties of the textual and visual elements. The second dimension involves interpretive analysis where the goal is to examine the contents of language and its functional parts to understand and interpret the connections between the role of language and the greater social structures it reflects and supports. Societal analysis, the third dimension, focuses on explanations of larger cultural, historical, and social discourses surrounding interpretations of the data. The analyses from this study suggest that colleges and universities utilize a common promotional discourse en masse to market rather systematic representations of "higher education" despite the fact that they vary widely by a number of institutional characteristics. Specifically, analyses reveal that institutions use language to repeatedly establish prestige and relevancy by touting the accomplishments of their institutional 2 actors. The institutions attempt to engage the viewer with relational language, present numerous co-curricular experiences along with numerous images related to generic institutional characteristics (e.g., architecture, campus scenery), and multiple layers of navigation. The scholarly commitment associated with higher education plays a reduced role while the intangibles available to the prospective student are at the forefront of representations in the sample. Institutions also poorly represent other social goods (e.g., class, sexual orientation). Of the 453 images in the study, 98 feature a non-white actor (21%) and 146 feature a female actor (32%). Representations of diverse actors often appear in the form of caricatures (e.g., Native American in tribal dress). Given the mission a...

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Representations of heart failure in Internet patient information

Cited by 9 publications

References 27 publications

Language matters: representations of ‘heart failure’ in English discourse—a large-scale linguistic study

Language matters: representations of ‘heart failure’ in English discourse—a large-scale linguistic study

Health Literacy and Global Cognitive Function Predict E-Mail but Not Internet Use in Heart Failure Patients

Representation on college and university websites

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