Self-care, social norms and anomie during COVID-19: from contestation of the greater good to building future normative resilience in the UK

Abstract Background Self-care interventions are influencing people’s access to, expectation and understanding of healthcare beyond formal health delivery systems. In doing so, self-care interventions could potentially improve health-seeking behaviours. While many men proactively engage in maintaining and promoting their health, the focus on men’s health comes from the recognition, at least partially, that male socialization and social norms can induce men and boys to have a lower engagement in institutionalized public health entities and systems around their sexual and reproductive health and rights, that could impact negatively on themselves, their partners and children. Main text A research agenda could consider the ways that public health messaging and information on self care practices for sexual and reproductive health and rights could be tailored to reflect men’s lived realities and experiences. Three examples of evidence-based self-care interventions related to sexual and reproductive health and rights that men can, and many do, engage in are briefly discussed: condom use, HIV self-testing and use of telemedicine and digital platforms for sexual health. We apply four core elements that contribute to health, including men’s health (people-centred approaches, quality health systems, a safe and supportive enabling environment, and behaviour-change communication) to each intervention where further research can inform normative guidance. Conclusion Engaging men and boys and facilitating their participation in self care can be an important policy intervention to advance global sexual and reproductive health and rights goals. The longstanding model of men neglecting or even sabotaging their wellbeing needs to be replaced by healthier lifestyles, which requires understanding how factors related to social support, social norms, power, academic performance or employability conditions, among others, influence men’s engagement with health services and with their own self care practices.

Download Full-text

An advanced self-care delivery model for leg ulcer management: a service evaluation

Journal of Wound Care ◽

10.12968/jowc.2021.30.9.751 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 30 (9) ◽

pp. 751-762

Author(s):

Laura Hallas-Hoyes ◽

Stephanie Williamson ◽

Andrew Kerr ◽

Trevor Andrews ◽

Leanne Calladine

Keyword(s):

Lower Limb ◽

Care Delivery ◽

Self Care ◽

Clinical Effectiveness ◽

Service Evaluation ◽

Delivery Model ◽

Suitability Assessment ◽

Care Delivery Model ◽

Professional Contact ◽

The Uk

Background: Lower limb ulceration is a common cause of suffering in patients and its management poses a significant burden on the NHS, with venous leg ulcers (VLUs) being the most common hard-to-heal wound in the UK. It is estimated that over one million patients in the UK have lower limb ulceration, of which 560,000 were categorised as VLUs, with a cost burden of over £3 billion each year. Objective: The aim of this service evaluation was to assess the effects of implementing a self-care delivery model on clinical outcomes with the intention of limiting face-to-face health professional contact to one appointment every 6 weeks. Method: A suitability assessment was conducted and a cohort of patients were moved to a self-care delivery model. Patient data were collected, anonymised and independently analysed, comparing time to healing against data on file from a previous report. Results: This highlighted that, in 84 of the 95 patients selected, the VLUs had healed by week 24 on the pathway, a further 10 patients' VLUs had healed by week 42 and only one remaining patient reached 42 weeks without healing. Conclusion: These results support the hypothesis that patients with VLUs can self-care and deliver clinical effectiveness. It is recommended that all services explore the possibility of introducing a self-care model for VLU care.

Download Full-text

‘As if nobody’s reading’?: The imagined audience and socio-technical biases in personal blogging practice in the UK

10.31235/osf.io/mrq9v ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David R Brake

Keyword(s):

Social Norms ◽

Computer Mediated Communication ◽

Theoretical Perspective ◽

Structural Factors ◽

Mediated Communication ◽

Critical Technology ◽

Site Use ◽

Interactionist Perspective ◽

Initial Survey ◽

The Uk

This thesis examines the understandings and meanings of personal blogging from the perspective of blog authors. The theoretical framework draws on a symbolic interactionist perspective, focusing on how meaning is constructed through blogging practices, supplemented by theories of mediation and critical technology studies. The principal evidence in this study is derived from an analysis of in-depth interviews with bloggers selected to maximise their diversity based on the results of an initial survey. This is supplemented by an analysis of personal blogging’s technical contexts and of various societal influences that appear to influence blogging practices.Bloggers were found to have limited interest in gathering information about their readers, appearing to rely instead on an assumption that readers are sympathetic. Although personal blogging practices have been framed as being a form of radically free expression, they were also shown to be subject to potential biases including social norms and the technical characteristics of blogging services. Blogs provide a persistent record of a blogger’s practice, but the bloggers in this study did not generally read their archives or expect others to do so, nor did they retrospectively edit their archives to maintain a consistent self-presentation.The empirical results provide a basis for developing a theoretical perspective to account for blogging practices. This emphasises firstly that a blogger’s construction of the meaning of their practice can be based as much on an imagined and desired social context as it is on an informed and reflexive understanding of the communicative situation. Secondly, blogging practices include a variety of envisaged audience relationships, and some blogging practices appear to be primarilyself-directed with potential audiences playing a marginal role. Blogging’s technical characteristics and the social norms surrounding blogging practices appear to enable and reinforce this unanticipated lack of engagement with audiences. This perspective contrasts with studies of computer mediated communication that suggest bloggers would monitor their audiences and present themselves strategically to ensure interactions are successful in their terms. The study also points the way towards several avenues for further research including a more in-depth consideration of the neglected structural factors (both social and technical) which potentially influence blogging practices, and an examination of social network site use practices using a similar analytical approach.

Download Full-text

Self-care use patterns in the UK, US, Australia, and Japan: a multinational web-based survey

Integrative Medicine Research ◽

10.1016/j.imr.2016.03.001 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 151-160 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Sujeong Mun ◽

Jeong-Hwan Park ◽

Seung-Min Baek ◽

Minhee Lee ◽

Sun-Mi Choi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Self Care ◽

Web Based ◽

Use Patterns ◽

The Uk

Download Full-text

From Compliance to Concordance and Beyond

Clinical Solutions and Medical Progress through User-Driven Healthcare ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-1876-3.ch001 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Daz Greenop ◽

Katherine Thomas

Keyword(s):

Self Care ◽

Patient Experiences ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Research Issues ◽

Concordance Analysis ◽

Qualitative Health Research ◽

Healthcare It ◽

Recent Developments ◽

The Uk ◽

Descriptive Framework

This commentary begins with a brief overview of recent developments in healthcare policy and practice in the UK. Particular attention is paid to the demise of the concept (and practice) of compliance along with and rise of the concept (and practice) of concordance. Analysis suggests that despite considerable changes in the organisation and delivery of healthcare there remains a clear gap between rhetoric and reality. Drawing on insights from qualitative health research issues of identity, embodiment and self-care are explored and synthesised in a single descriptive framework. Neither compliance nor concordance alone adequately captures the reality of patient experiences in everyday life. The framework of understanding proposed here contextualises compliance and concordance and their corollaries within distinct horizons of expectation. For a truly user-driven healthcare it is not a question of either/or but both and more and asking, in reality, what can a body do?

Download Full-text

Governing Disease

Testing Fate ◽

10.5749/minnesota/9780816699957.003.0003 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Shelley Z. Reuter

Keyword(s):

Genetic Counseling ◽

Self Care ◽

Jewish Immigration ◽

Period 1880 ◽

The Uk

The second chapter focuses on Jewish immigration to the UK during roughly the same period (1880-1914) and the interventions that were made into the immigrants’ behaviours so as to inculcate an ethos of self-care. This early instance of responsibilization set the stage for Jewish parents to seek out genetic counseling (such as it was) for Tay-Sachs in these early days.

Download Full-text

Cross-ethnic friendship self-efficacy: A new predictor of cross-ethnic friendships among children

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations ◽

10.1177/1368430219879219 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 23 (7) ◽

pp. 1049-1065 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sabahat C. Bagci ◽

Lindsey Cameron ◽

Rhiannon N. Turner ◽

Catarina Morais ◽

Afiya Carby ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Norms ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Intergroup Contact ◽

Friendship Quality ◽

Efficacy Beliefs ◽

High Quality ◽

Indirect Contact ◽

Intergroup Anxiety ◽

The Uk ◽

Prior Contact

Across two studies ( NStudy 1 = 101; NStudy 2 = 262) conducted among children in the UK, we incorporate Bandura’s (1986) self-efficacy theory to intergroup contact literature and introduce the new construct of cross-ethnic friendship self-efficacy (CEFSE), the belief that one can successfully form and maintain high-quality cross-ethnic friendships. Study 1 examined whether sources of CEFSE beliefs (prior contact, indirect contact, social norms, and intergroup anxiety) predicted higher quality cross-ethnic friendships through CEFSE. Study 2 replicated Study 1 and extended it by including perceived parental cross-ethnic friendship quality as a further predictor. In both studies, sources of self-efficacy beliefs (except social norms) were related to CEFSE, which predicted higher quality cross-ethnic friendships. Study 2 demonstrated that parental cross-ethnic friendships had direct and indirect associations with children’s cross-ethnic friendships through sources of CEFSE and CEFSE beliefs. Findings are discussed in the light of self-efficacy and intergroup contact theories.

Download Full-text

Influence of obesity prevalence on social norms and weight control motivation: a cross-sectional comparison of the Netherlands and the UK

Psychology Health & Medicine ◽

10.1080/13548506.2020.1829654 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Fiona B. Gillison ◽

Vera Killen ◽

Elisabeth B. Grey ◽

Martyn Standage ◽

Daniella Watson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

Social Norms ◽

Weight Control ◽

Obesity Prevalence ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Control Motivation ◽

The Uk

Download Full-text

P1546UK ANNUAL THERAPY COST OF DIALYSIS WITH THE QUANTA SC+ PERSONAL HAEMODIALYSIS SYSTEM

Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation ◽

10.1093/ndt/gfaa142.p1546 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 35 (Supplement_3) ◽

Author(s):

Thomas Ferguson ◽

Paul Komenda ◽

Gerard Harper ◽

John Milad

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Emergency Department ◽

Health Care System ◽

Self Care ◽

Emergency Department Visits ◽

Weekend Effect ◽

Care At Home ◽

The Uk ◽

Care System ◽

At Home

Abstract Background and Aims The number of patients receiving dialysis is increasing in the United Kingdom, costing the National Health Service (NHS) over 500 million GBP annually. New personal haemodialysis systems are being developed, such as the Quanta SC+, that are smaller and simpler to use by patients while providing the clearances of conventional systems. Increasing uptake of lower intensity assistance and full self-care dialysis may provide economic benefits to the public health payer. In addition, promotion of every other day dialysis (3.5x weekly) may improve costs to the health system by helping to close the “post-weekend effect” with increased emergency department use and hospitalisations following the long interdialytic gap. As such, we aimed to describe the annual therapy costs of using SC+ in the UK for 3x weekly and 3.5x weekly dialysis regimens, both for self-care haemodialysis provided in-centre and at home in comparison to dialysis provided with conventional machines from the perspective of the health care system. Method Cost minimisation approach. Costs for human resources, equipment, and consumables were sourced from the dialysis machine developer (Quanta Dialysis Technologies). Other costs, such as facility expenses, dialysis-related drugs, avoided emergency department and hospitalisation events, and utilities were taken from a review of the literature. Costs are provided in 2018 GBP. Results Therapy provided as self-care in-centre or full self-care at home were found to have similar costs (£33,721 in-centre versus £33,836 at home for the 3x weekly regimen). Costs increased to £37,238 for self-care in-centre and £35,557 at home for the 3.5x weekly regimen. A comparator cost of £39,416 was established for dialysis provided with conventional machines in-hospital 3x weekly. For each dialysis patient, the health care system is anticipated to save £3,666 in costs associated with excess hospital stays and £2,176 in costs associated with excess emergency department visits. Conclusion In the UK, SC+ offers cost savings when used both for self-care in-centre and full self-care at home in comparison to dialysis provided in the clinic using conventional machines.

Download Full-text

Delivering Self‐Care in the UK

Journal of Integrated Care ◽

10.1108/14769018200600028 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 26-27

Author(s):

Adrian Jacobs

Keyword(s):

Self Care ◽

The Uk

Download Full-text