Acceptable care? Illness constructions, healthworlds, and accessible chronic treatment in South Africa.
Qual Health Res
; 25(5): 622-35, 2015 May.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25829509
ABSTRACT
Achieving equitable access to health care is an important policy goal, with access influenced by affordability, availability, and acceptability of specific services. We explore patient narratives from a 5-year program of research on health care access to examine relationships between social constructions of illness and the acceptability of health services in the context of tuberculosis treatment and antiretroviral therapy in South Africa. Acceptability of services seems particularly important to the meanings patients attach to illness and care, whereas-conversely-these constructions appear to influence what constitutes acceptability and hence affect access to care. We highlight the underestimated role of individually, socially, and politically constructed healthworlds; traditional and biomedical beliefs; and social support networks. Suggested policy implications for improving acceptability and hence overall health care access include abandoning patronizing approaches to care and refocusing from treating "disease" to responding to "illness" by acknowledging and incorporating patients' healthworlds in patient-provider interactions.
Palavras-chave
Africa, South; HIV/AIDS; health care; health care, access to; health care, users' experiences; illness and disease, chronic; illness and disease, infectious; illness and disease, social construction; interviews, semistructured; relationships, patientprovider; research, qualitative; social constructionism; tuberculosis (TB)
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Tuberculose
/
Infecções por HIV
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Conhecimentos, Atitudes e Prática em Saúde
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Acessibilidade aos Serviços de Saúde
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
Limite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
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Male
/
Middle aged
/
Pregnancy
País como assunto:
Africa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2015
Tipo de documento:
Article