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“It’s like the bad guy in a movie who just doesn’t die”: A qualitative exploration of young people’s adaptation to eczema and implications for self-care.

“It’s like the bad guy in a movie who just doesn’t die”: A qualitative exploration of young people’s adaptation to eczema and implications for self-care.
“It’s like the bad guy in a movie who just doesn’t die”: A qualitative exploration of young people’s adaptation to eczema and implications for self-care.
Background
Eczema is a common childhood inflammatory skin condition, affecting more than 1 in 5 children. A popular perception is children ‘outgrow eczema’, although epidemiological studies have shown that, for many, eczema follows a life‐long episodic course. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of young people about the nature of their eczema and how these perceptions relate to their self‐care and adapting to living with eczema.

Methods
Secondary inductive thematic analysis of interviews conducted for Healthtalk.org. A total of 23 interviews with young people with eczema were included. Participants consisted of 17 women and 6 men, ranging from 17 to 25 years old.

Results
Participants generally experienced eczema as an episodic long‐term condition and reported a mismatch between information received about eczema and their experiences. The experience of eczema as long‐term and episodic had implications for self‐care, challenging the process of identifying triggers of eczema flare‐ups and evaluating the success of treatment regimes. Participants’ experiences of eczema over time also had implications for adaptation and finding a balance between accepting eczema as long‐term and hoping it would go away. This linked to a gradual shift in treatment expectations from ‘cure’ to ‘control’ of eczema.

Conclusions
For young people who continue to experience eczema beyond childhood, a greater focus on self‐care for a long‐term condition may be helpful. Greater awareness of the impact of early messages around ‘growing out of’ eczema and provision of high quality information may help manage expectations and support adaptation to treatment regimes.
Ghio, Daniela
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Muller, Ingrid
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Greenwell, Kate
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Roberts, Amanda
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McNiven, Abigail
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Langan, S.M.
8c870822-3a5a-45c9-ad3c-13adc96a3c53
Santer, Miriam
3ce7e832-31eb-4d27-9876-3a1cd7f381dc
Ghio, Daniela
68e87380-d790-4f20-b24d-d3ac0ca5765d
Muller, Ingrid
2569bf42-51bd-40da-bbfd-dd4dbbd62cad
Greenwell, Kate
4bac64bd-059f-4d7d-90d3-5c0bccb7ffb2
Roberts, Amanda
f5809cd3-5555-41b9-8a04-7ab12849efe5
McNiven, Abigail
1260bf26-d82d-4e04-9a73-835be4e84536
Langan, S.M.
8c870822-3a5a-45c9-ad3c-13adc96a3c53
Santer, Miriam
3ce7e832-31eb-4d27-9876-3a1cd7f381dc

Ghio, Daniela, Muller, Ingrid, Greenwell, Kate, Roberts, Amanda, McNiven, Abigail, Langan, S.M. and Santer, Miriam (2019) “It’s like the bad guy in a movie who just doesn’t die”: A qualitative exploration of young people’s adaptation to eczema and implications for self-care. British Journal of Dermatology. (doi:10.1111/bjd.18046).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background
Eczema is a common childhood inflammatory skin condition, affecting more than 1 in 5 children. A popular perception is children ‘outgrow eczema’, although epidemiological studies have shown that, for many, eczema follows a life‐long episodic course. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of young people about the nature of their eczema and how these perceptions relate to their self‐care and adapting to living with eczema.

Methods
Secondary inductive thematic analysis of interviews conducted for Healthtalk.org. A total of 23 interviews with young people with eczema were included. Participants consisted of 17 women and 6 men, ranging from 17 to 25 years old.

Results
Participants generally experienced eczema as an episodic long‐term condition and reported a mismatch between information received about eczema and their experiences. The experience of eczema as long‐term and episodic had implications for self‐care, challenging the process of identifying triggers of eczema flare‐ups and evaluating the success of treatment regimes. Participants’ experiences of eczema over time also had implications for adaptation and finding a balance between accepting eczema as long‐term and hoping it would go away. This linked to a gradual shift in treatment expectations from ‘cure’ to ‘control’ of eczema.

Conclusions
For young people who continue to experience eczema beyond childhood, a greater focus on self‐care for a long‐term condition may be helpful. Greater awareness of the impact of early messages around ‘growing out of’ eczema and provision of high quality information may help manage expectations and support adaptation to treatment regimes.

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Ghio_et_al-2019-British_Journal_of_Dermatology (1) - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 23 April 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 25 April 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 430566
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/430566
PURE UUID: c132b14b-dec4-40ab-98a3-639ff113e188
ORCID for Ingrid Muller: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9341-6133
ORCID for Kate Greenwell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3662-1488
ORCID for Miriam Santer: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-5260

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Date deposited: 03 May 2019 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:48

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Contributors

Author: Daniela Ghio
Author: Ingrid Muller ORCID iD
Author: Kate Greenwell ORCID iD
Author: Amanda Roberts
Author: Abigail McNiven
Author: S.M. Langan
Author: Miriam Santer ORCID iD

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