The hidden pandemic: a qualitative study on how middle-aged women make sense of managing their long COVID symptoms

IF 2.2 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL Health Psychology Report Pub Date : 2023-10-04 DOI:10.5114/hpr/169811
Disa Collier, Gulcan Garip
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Abstract

Background A relapsing and remitting illness, long COVID can be challenging and debilitating. A person living with long COVID can feel like they are getting better and recovering only to relapse again. The aim of the research was to explore how non-hospitalized middle-aged women who contracted COVID in the first wave of the pandemic, from March 2020, are manag-ing their long COVID symptoms. Participants and procedure A qualitative research study with an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach was used to explore how the wom-en made sense of managing their condition and health seeking behaviours. Participants were recruited from long COVID Facebook groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted remotely by Teams audio; these were digitally recorded and transcribed by hand with prior informed consent. Nine women were interviewed and four themes and eight sub-themes emerged from the data. Results The four emerging themes were: inequality and inconsistent medical treatment; uncertainty and ambiguity of managing long COVID symptoms; managing other people’s expectations and perceptions of long COVID; and the changing identity. Overall, these results indicated a general mistrust in health care services to provide adequate support and individualized treatment plans leading women to self-advocacy and to seek alternative support and treatment. Conclusions This study raised questions about the possible unfair treatment of women seeking medical attention for their long COVID symptoms; how ambiguous symptoms are misattributed to anxiety and discrimination from health care professionals con-tributes towards stigma. The study concludes with recommendations for service improvement such as the compassionate validation of patients’ pain and the use of evidence-based therapeutic practices such as mindfulness.
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隐藏的流行病:一项关于中年妇女如何管理长期COVID症状的定性研究
作为一种复发性和缓解性疾病,长期COVID可能具有挑战性并使人虚弱。长期感染COVID的人可能会觉得自己正在好转,恢复后又复发了。该研究的目的是探索在2020年3月开始的第一波大流行中感染COVID的未住院中年妇女如何管理其长期的COVID症状。本研究采用解释现象学分析方法进行定性研究,探讨女性如何理解管理自身状况和寻求健康的行为。参与者从COVID Facebook长群中招募,由Teams audio远程进行半结构化访谈;这些都是在事先知情同意的情况下进行数字记录和手工转录的。9名女性接受了采访,从数据中得出了4个主题和8个副主题。结果四个新出现的主题是:不平等和不一致的医疗;处理长时间COVID症状的不确定性和模糊性;管理他人对长期COVID的期望和看法;以及身份的变化。总的来说,这些结果表明,人们普遍不信任保健服务是否能提供足够的支持和个性化的治疗计划,从而导致妇女自我宣传,并寻求其他支持和治疗。这项研究提出了一些问题,即女性因长期出现COVID症状而寻求医疗照顾可能受到不公平对待;如何将模棱两可的症状错误地归因于焦虑和卫生保健专业人员的歧视导致了耻辱。该研究最后提出了改善服务的建议,如对病人的痛苦进行同情验证,以及使用循证治疗方法,如正念。
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来源期刊
Health Psychology Report
Health Psychology Report PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-
CiteScore
3.30
自引率
15.00%
发文量
21
审稿时长
8 weeks
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