Dataset Information

Drug breakthrough offers hope to arthritis sufferers: qualitative analysis of medical research in UK newspapers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Newspaper stories can impact behaviours, particularly in relation to research participation. It is therefore important to understand the narratives presented and ways in which these are received. Some work to date assumes journalism transmits existing medical knowledge to a passive audience. This study aimed to explore how newspaper articles present stories about medical research and how people interpret and use them.

Design

Qualitative research methods were employed to analyse two data sets: newspaper articles relating to 'rheumatoid arthritis' and 'research' from UK local and national news sources; and existing transcripts of interviews with patients with rheumatoid arthritis and their carers.

Results

Newspapers present a positive account of medical research, through a simple narrative with three essential components: an 'innovation' offers 'hope' in the context of 'burden'. Patients frequently feature as passive subjects without attributed opinions. Few articles include patients' experiences of research involvement. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis and their carers read articles about medical research critically, often with cynicism and drawing on other sources for interpretation.

Conclusions

An understanding of the simple, positive narrative of medical research found in newspaper articles may enable researchers to gain mass media exposure for their work and challenge this typical style of reporting. The critical and cynical ways patients and carers read stories about medical research suggest that concerns about newspaper articles misinforming the public may be overstated, but any effect on research engagement is unknown. Newspaper articles rarely present patients' views or their experiences of research, and this can be conceptualized as 'depersonalization bias'.

SUBMITTER: Hanson H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5354054 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Drug breakthrough offers hope to arthritis sufferers: qualitative analysis of medical research in UK newspapers.

Hanson Helen H O'Brien Nicola N Whybrow Paul P Isaacs John D JD Rapley Tim T

Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy 20160504 2

<h4>Background</h4>Newspaper stories can impact behaviours, particularly in relation to research participation. It is therefore important to understand the narratives presented and ways in which these are received. Some work to date assumes journalism transmits existing medical knowledge to a passive audience. This study aimed to explore how newspaper articles present stories about medical research and how people interpret and use them.<h4>Design</h4>Qualitative research methods were employed to ...[more]

PMID: 27145430

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Project description:BackgroundQualitative research appears to be gaining acceptability in medical journals. Yet, little is actually known about the proportion of qualitative research and factors affecting its publication. This study describes the proportion of qualitative research over a 10 year period and correlates associated with its publication.DesignA quantitative longitudinal examination of the proportion of original qualitative research in 67 journals of general medicine during a 10 year period (1998-2007). The proportion of qualitative research was determined by dividing original qualitative studies published (numerator) by all original research articles published (denominator). We used a generalized estimating equations approach to assess the longitudinal association between the proportion of qualitative studies and independent variables (i.e. journals' country of publication and impact factor; editorial/methodological papers discussing qualitative research; and specific journal guidelines pertaining to qualitative research).FindingsA 2.9% absolute increase and 3.4-fold relative increase in qualitative research publications occurred over a 10 year period (1.2% in 1998 vs. 4.1% in 2007). The proportion of original qualitative research was independently and significantly associated with the publication of editorial/methodological papers in the journal (b?=?3.688, P?=?0.012); and with qualitative research specifically mentioned in guidelines for authors (b?=?6.847, P<0.001). Additionally, a higher proportion of qualitative research was associated only with journals published in the UK in comparison to other countries, yet with borderline statistical significance (b?=?1.776, P?=?0.075). The journals' impact factor was not associated with the publication of qualitative research.ConclusionsDespite an increase in the proportion of qualitative research in medical journals over a 10 year period, the proportion remains low. Journals' policies pertaining to qualitative research, as expressed by the appearance of specific guidelines and editorials/methodological papers on the subject, are independently associated with the publication of original qualitative research; irrespective of the journals' impact factor.

Project description:ContextLongitudinal qualitative research is an approach to research that entails generating qualitative data with the same participants over extended periods of time to understand their lived experiences as those experiences unfold. Knowing about dynamic lived experiences in medical education, that is, learning journeys with stops and starts, detours, transitions and reversals, enriches understanding of events and accomplishments along the way. The purpose of this paper is to create access points to longitudinal qualitative research in support of increasing its use in medical education.MethodsThe authors explore and argue for different conceptualisations of time: analysing lived experiences through time versus analysing lived experiences cross-sectional or via 2-point follow-up studies and considering time as subjective and fluid as well as objective and fixed. They introduce applications of longitudinal qualitative research from several academic domains: investigating development and formal education; building longitudinal research relationship; and exploring interconnections between individual journeys and social structures. They provide an illustrative overview of longitudinal qualitative research in medical education, and end with practical advice, or pearls, for medical education investigators interested in using this research approach: collecting data recursively; analysing longitudinal data in three strands; addressing mutual reflexivity; using theory to illuminate time; and making a long-term commitment to longitudinal qualitative research.ConclusionsLongitudinal qualitative research stretches investigators to think differently about time and undertake more complex analyses to understand dynamic lived experiences. Research in medical education will likely be impoverished if the focus remains on time as fixed. Seeing things qualitatively through time, where time is fluid and the past, present and future interpenetrate, produces a rich understanding that can move the field forward.

Dataset Information

Drug breakthrough offers hope to arthritis sufferers: qualitative analysis of medical research in UK newspapers.

Background

Design

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Drug breakthrough offers hope to arthritis sufferers: qualitative analysis of medical research in UK newspapers.

Similar Datasets

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