Chronic Illness: Health-Related Quality of Life Flashcards
Define the term chronic illness
Encompasses a wide range of long-term conditions, that tend to have profound influence on the lives of sufferers
Manifestations vary greatly day-to-day
Medical intervention usually palliative
Chronic illness will increase with ageing population
Not only older people with chronic illness
Describe the onset of chronic illness
Symptoms can be striking
More often slow in onset
Other explanations for symptoms often available
How are chronic illnesses diagnosed?
May be prolonged period of uncertainty
Ambivalent status of some diagnoses e.g. chronic fatigue syndrome, IBS
Process of diagnosis can be quite unpleasant
Diagnosis can be shocking, threatening, a relief
What is biographical disruption?
Key sociological concept
Identifies chronic illness as a major disruptive experience
What are illness narratives?
Much sociological research on chronic illness is based on people’s narrative of their illness
Narrative offer a way of making sense of illness, & they perform certain functions
What is narrative reconstruction?
Process by which the shattered self is reconstructed in ways that explain the appearance of illness
Comes from a desire to create a sense of coherence, stability & order in the aftermath of biographical disruption
What ‘work’ has to be done to cope with chronic illness?
Illness work Everyday work Emotional work Biographical work Identity work
What is illness work?
Symptom management
Central to the coping task is dealing with the physical manifestations of illness e.g. eating, bathing, going to toilet
What is everyday life work?
Managing daily living
Strategy devised to manage the condition & its impact
- Mobilisation of resources, balancing the demand on others & remaining independent
Try to keep pre-illness lifestyle & identity intact
- Disguising or minimising symptoms
Re-designate new life as ‘normal life’
What is emotional work?
Managing one’s own emotions & those of others
Work that patient’s do to protect the emotional well-being of others - downplaying pain/symptoms
Impact on social relationships
Impact on role (breadwinner, mother) may be devastating, especially if it involves a switch to dependency
What is biographical work?
Loss & subsequent reconstruction of self
What is identity work?
Work to maintain an acceptable identity
Illness can affect how people see themselves, how others see them
Illness can become the defining aspect of identity
Define stigma
A negatively defined condition, attribute, trait or behaviour conferring “deviant” status; a “spoiled” identity
What is discreditable stigma?
Nothing seen, but if found out…
Stigma is yet to be revealed. It may be kept secret, revealed intentionally by patient or by some factor the patient cannot control
E.g. mental illness, HIV
What is discredited stigma?
Physically visible characteristic or well-know stigma that sets patient apart
Patient is discredited, thus affects not only patient’s behaviour but the behaviour of others
e.g. Physical disability, known suicide attempt
Name a condition that can be associated with both discreditable & discredited stigma
Epilepsy
