Self-Care: A Health Diary Study

Freer, Charles

doi:10.1097/00005650-198008000-00006

Cited by 78 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…They were asked to participated in this study because they had a keener interest in the survey (Freer, 1980a;Verbrugge, 1989). An initial demonstration of health diary recording was performed by the investigators.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Care of Villagers in Northeast Thailand. A Health Diary Study.

Osaka

Nanakorn

1996

Kurume Med. J.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Care of Villagers in Northeast Thailand. A Health Diary Study.

Osaka

Nanakorn

1996

Kurume Med. J.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Research based on records of consultations with primary care professionals or on fieldwork with informants using formal services can offer only an incomplete picture of health care use. The majority of illness episodes do not come to the attention of health professionals -indeed, within primary care, health professionals see only the tip of the illness iceberg (Dunnell and Cartwright, 1972;Banks et al, 1975;Freer, 1980;Scambler et al, 1981). Symptoms are managed not only by bio-medical professionals within the formal health services but also through self-care, treatment by lay others and alternative healers.…”

Section: 8mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Use of Diaries in Sociological Research on Health Experience

Elliott¹

1997

Sociological Research Online

216

181

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Diaries have been relatively neglected as a sociological research method. This paper highlights the value of diary research, drawing on the literature on auto/biographies and health service research as well as a qualitative study of need and demand for primary health care, which used diaries and linked in-depth interviews.In particular, data from the study are used to illustrate the role of the 'diary-interview' method in offering a means to 'observe' behaviour which is inaccessible to participant observation. Five key advantages of the diary-interview are discussed, namely the potential of the 'diary-interview' method to accommodate different response modes; the extent to which the method captured diarists' own priorities; the importance of the research process in illuminating the contexts within which helpseeking took place; the role of diaries as both a record of and reflection on the experience of illness and the value of the diary-interview method as a means of understanding what is 'taken for granted' in accounts of health and illness.Keywords: Diaries; Health Services Research; Need And Demand; Primary-Care; Qualitative Methods Introduction 1.1 This paper is based on a review of the extensive, but patchy literature on the use of diaries in sociological research. It explores some of the themes arising from this review in the context of a study of need and demand for primary health care, which used diaries and linked in-depth interviews. The study formed part of a research programme, based at the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre (NPCRDC) at the Public Health Research Resource Centre (PHRRC) at Salford University, to develop appropriate methods to investigate demand for formal and informal primary care (Nicolaas et al, 1997). One of the aims of the project reported here was to assess how valuable qualitative health diaries are in this field. Diaries as a Sociological Method 2.1The study was informed by two distinct sources, which have developed in parallel, with little cross-fertilization, namely the literature on auto/biography and 'life documents' and literature on diaries within health service research.Diaries in the Literature on 'Auto/Biography' or 'Documents of Life' 2.2 Allport (1943) identifies 3 distinct models of diary familiar in everyday life: the intimate journal, in which private thoughts and opinions are recorded, uncensored; the memoir -an 'impersonal' diary, often written with an eye to publication; and the log, which is a kind of listing of events, with relatively little commentary. While the memoir may assume an audience, the log and the intimate journal are essentially private documents, written primarily for the diarist themself. They are therefore constructed within the diarist's own frame of reference and can assume a forgiving, understanding reader (Allport, 1943;Jackson, 1994) for whom there is no need to present a best face. 2.3Within the autobiographical tradition, diaries are one of the 'documents of life', that is a 'self-revealing record that intenti...

show abstract

“…Minor upsets, like tension headache, indigestion, cold, backache and other commonplace, short duration discomfort may not be remembered and thus not reported. A more sensitive method for collecting illness experience is the home health diary (27)(28)(29). Typically, respondents are asked to record on a daily basis for several weeks anything "wrong" with them and what, if anything, they did about it: such as self-treatment, or seeing a doctor.…”

Section: The Extent Of Self-care Todaymentioning

confidence: 99%