Objective: The proportion of people having home dialysis for kidney disease varies considerably by treating centre, socioeconomic deprivation levels in the area and to some extent ethnicity. This study aimed to gain in-depth insights into cultural and organisational factors contributing to this variation in uptake.
Design: This is the first ethnographic study of kidney centre culture to focus on home dialysis uptake.
Introduction: Understanding patients' experiences is important when developing interventions for people living with persistent pain. Interviews and focus groups are frequently used to capture beliefs, views, and perspectives. These methods often require a commitment to a predetermined date and time that may present a barrier to participation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: General practitioners (GPs) are key to the frontline assessment and treatment of young people after self-harm. Young people value GP-led self-harm care, but little is known about how GPs manage young people after self-harm.
Aim: This study aimed to understand the approaches of GPs to self-harm in young people and explore their perspectives on ways they might help young people avoid repeat self-harm.
We draw on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Brussels (Belgium) on the health care experiences of undocumented migrants. We explore the implications of the double position of the ethnographer, who is both a researcher and a practicing doctor. We describe how the intimate knowledge the ethnographer-cum-clinician holds about the health care system influenced and shaped the data collection, analysis and subsequent policy recommendations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Regular review of patients prescribed opioids for persistent non-cancer pain (PCNP) is recommended but not routinely undertaken. The PROMPPT (roactive clinical eview of patients taking pioid edicines long-term for persistent ain led by clinical harmacists in primary care eams) research programme aims to develop and test a pharmacist-led pain review (PROMPPT) to reduce inappropriate opioid use for persistent pain in primary care. This study explored the acceptability of the proposed PROMPPT review to inform early intervention development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Opioids are frequently prescribed for persistent non-cancer pain despite limited evidence of long-term effectiveness and risk of harm. Evidence-based interventions to address inappropriate opioid prescribing are lacking.
Aim: To explore perspectives of people living with persistent pain to understand barriers and facilitators in reducing opioids in the context of a pharmacist-led primary care review, and identify review components and features for optimal delivery.
Background: There is limited knowledge about the stigma associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Sri Lanka. To ensure that leishmaniasis researchers focus on CL-associated stigma, we provide an evidence-based framework that can be used in future research.
Methods: We conducted a systematic review on CL-associated stigma using international evidence and carried out a multimethod qualitative study in the Anuradhapura district in Sri Lanka.
Background: Disparities in home dialysis uptake across England suggest inequity and unexplained variation in access. We surveyed staff at all English kidney centres to identify patterns in service organisation/delivery and explore correlations with home therapy uptake, as part of a larger study ('Inter-CEPt'), which aims to identify potentially modifiable factors to address observed variations.
Methods: Between June and September 2022, staff working at English kidney centres were surveyed and individual responses combined into one centre-level response per question using predetermined data aggregation rules.
Leishmaniasis is a tropical infectious disease affecting some of the world's most economically disadvantaged and resource-poor regions. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is the most common out of the three clinical types of Leishmaniasis. Since 1904 this disease has been endemic in Sri Lanka.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: In low/middle-income countries (LMICs), more than half of patients with first-episode psychosis initially seek treatment from traditional and religious healers as their first care. This contributes to an excessively long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP). There is a need for culturally appropriate interventions to involve traditional and spiritual healers to work collaboratively with primary care practitioners and psychiatrists through task-shifting for early detection, referral and treatment of first episode of psychosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Negl Trop Dis
May 2023
Background: Knowledge of early clinical manifestations, people's perceptions and behaviours is crucial in preventing and controlling neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Cutaneous leishmaniasis is an NTD that causes skin lesions and affects millions worldwide. Delayed healthcare-seeking behaviour leading to prolonged treatment periods and complications is rife among people with cutaneous leishmaniasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeishmaniasis is widely considered a disease that emerged in Sri Lanka in the 1990s. However, a comprehensive case report from 1904 suggests that the presence of Leishmaniasis was well demonstrated in Sri Lanka long before that. The Annual Administration Reports of Ceylon/Sri Lanka from 1895 to 1970 and the Ceylon Blue Book from 1821 to 1937 are official historical documents that provide an annual performance, progress, goals achieved, and finances of Sri Lanka during that time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: More than one million people each year become infected by parasites that cause the disease cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). This disease manifests as one or more skin lesions or ulcers that are slow to heal with variable response rates to drug treatments. Thus far, little attention has been paid to how the cultural effects of gender shape perceptions and experiences of CL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To explore the perceptions and experiences of schizophrenia from patients, their care givers, health care providers, spiritual and traditional healers to develop a community-based intervention for improving treatment adherence for people with schizophrenia in Pakistan.
Methods: This qualitative study involved four focus group discussions (FGD) with a total of 26 participants: patients and carers (n = 5), primary care staff (n = 7), medical technicians (n = 8) and traditional and spiritual healers (n = 6). The participants were selected using purposive sampling method.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the scaling back or postponement of non-emergency hospital services, including care of cancer patients. The present qualitative study explored the experiences of newly diagnosed oral cancer patients during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. Patients who attended the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Khyber College of Dentistry in July 2020 were selected using a maximum variation purposive sampling method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Self-harm in young people is a serious international health concern that impacts on those providing informal support: the supporting individuals of young people. We aimed to highlight the experiences, views, and needs of these supporting individuals of young people. We conducted a systematic review and thematic synthesis: PROSPERO CRD42020168527.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHaving an effective surveillance system is imperative to take timely and appropriate actions for disease control and prevention. In Sri Lanka, leishmaniasis was declared as a notifiable disease in 2008. This paper presents a comprehensive compilation of the up-to-date documents on the communicable disease and leishmaniasis surveillance in Sri Lanka in order to describe the importance of the existing leishmaniasis surveillance system and to identify gaps that need to be addressed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To estimate the prevalence of burnout among primary health-care professionals in low- and middle-income countries and to identify factors associated with burnout.
Methods: We systematically searched nine databases up to February 2022 to identify studies investigating burnout in primary health-care professionals in low- and middle-income countries. There were no language limitations and we included observational studies.
Introduction: Use of home dialysis by centres in the UK varies considerably and is decreasing despite attempts to encourage greater use. Knowing what drives this unwarranted variation requires in-depth understanding of centre cultural and organisational factors and how these relate to quantifiable centre performance, accounting for competing treatment options. This knowledge will be used to identify components of a practical and feasible intervention bundle ensuring this is realistic and cost-effective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The aim of this study was to explore the agency of older adults and their strategies to restructure ways of being and belonging in a rapidly and radically changed social environment during the UK's first COVID-19 lockdown in Spring 2020.
Design: Qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews. Findings were derived from a thematic analysis of interview transcripts.
Introduction: Certainty/uncertainty in medicine is a topic of popular debate. This study aims to understand how biomedical uncertainty is conceptualised by academic medical educators and how it is taught in a medical school in the UK.
Methods: This is an exploratory qualitative study grounded in ethnographic principles.