The interaction of age and gender in illness narratives

Abstract

Recognition of the greater capacity of older women to draw on supportive social networks has now supplemented an earlier focus of research into gender and ageing which portrayed older men as a 'privileged gerontocracy ' because of their greater access to financial resources and spousal care. This study of the experiences of cancer among people of three different age groups conducted a comparative keyword analysis of their narratives to consider the gender differentiation of a third resource : access to medical information and personnel. The analysed narratives were sampled from a large archive of research interviews. It was found that older men with cancer demonstrated a greater involvement with medicine as an expert system than younger men or women or older women. This stemmed from their social confidence when interacting with doctors and their interest in treating their illness as a ' problem ' to be fixed with medico-scientific solutions. Compared with younger men and women of all ages, older men were less likely to draw on informal social and family networks for support, or to discuss in a direct style the emotional dimension of illness experience. Our findings contrast with other studies that have reported linguistic disadvantage in older people in elderly care settings, which underlines the importance of context for linguistic studies.

3233 Safe in the bubble, out into the unknown: Returning home following allogeneic stem cell transplantation: A phenomenological study

“…Other aspects of care when participants influenced decision making include those concerning admission to and discharge from hospital, declining the insertion of a naso-gastric tube for feeding purposes and a disinclination to discuss wig options because the timing did not feel right. These findings contrast with those of Seale and Charteris-Black (2008) as the examples above involved a cross section of participants being involved in decision making irrespective of age and gender as opposed to a predominance of older men.…”

Rumors About Cancer: Content, Sources, Coping, Transmission, and Belief

“…This is common when formal sources of information are distrusted, as was the case in the former Soviet Union (Bauer & Gleicher, 1953). The few extant cancer rumor studies also suggest that people rely on informal and familial word-of-mouth channels when the medical community is distrusted (Gany et al, 2006;Mosavel & El-Shaarawi, 2007;Seale & Charteris-Black, 2008). Cancer knowledge is often shaped by narratives about personal experience of family members (Mosavel & El-Shaarawi, 2007).…”

The sociology of cancer: a decade of research

“…, Ramirez et al . , Seale and Charteris‐Black , Wenger and Oliffe ), and the gendered nature of conventions and care (Bottorff et al . , Ehlers , Hansen , Mroz et al .…”