Taking charge of eczema self-management: a qualitative interview study with young people with eczema
Taking charge of eczema self-management: a qualitative interview study with young people with eczema
Objectives: To explore young people’s experiences of eczema self-management and interacting with health professionals.
Design: Secondary qualitative data analysis of data sets from two semistructured interview studies. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.
Setting: Participants were recruited from the UK primary care, dermatology departments and a community-based sample (eg, patient representative groups, social media).
Participants: Data included 28 interviews with young people with eczema aged 13–25 years (mean age=19.5 years; 20 female).
Results: Although topical treatments were generally perceived as effective, young people expressed doubts about their long-term effectiveness, and concerns around the safety and an over-reliance on topical corticosteroids. Participants welcomed the opportunity to take an active role in their eczema management, but new roles and responsibilities also came with initial apprehension and challenges, including communicating their treatment concerns and preferences with health professionals, feeling unprepared for transition to an adult clinic and obtaining treatments. Decisions regarding whether to engage in behaviours that would exacerbate their eczema (eg, irritants/triggers, scratching) were influenced by young people’s beliefs regarding negative consequences of these behaviours, and perceived control over the behaviour and its negative consequences.
Conclusions: Behavioural change interventions must address the treatment concerns of young people and equip them with the knowledge, skills and confidence to take an active role in their own eczema management.
eczema, primary care, qualitative research
1-9
Greenwell, Kate
4bac64bd-059f-4d7d-90d3-5c0bccb7ffb2
Ghio, Daniela
68e87380-d790-4f20-b24d-d3ac0ca5765d
Muller, Ingrid
2569bf42-51bd-40da-bbfd-dd4dbbd62cad
Roberts, Amanda
e6039287-3653-43e2-84ce-22b27db8640d
McNiven, Abigail
1260bf26-d82d-4e04-9a73-835be4e84536
Lawton, Sandra
610566de-d907-4721-ac53-6ef72f9e708d
Santer, Miriam
3ce7e832-31eb-4d27-9876-3a1cd7f381dc
6 January 2021
Greenwell, Kate
4bac64bd-059f-4d7d-90d3-5c0bccb7ffb2
Ghio, Daniela
68e87380-d790-4f20-b24d-d3ac0ca5765d
Muller, Ingrid
2569bf42-51bd-40da-bbfd-dd4dbbd62cad
Roberts, Amanda
e6039287-3653-43e2-84ce-22b27db8640d
McNiven, Abigail
1260bf26-d82d-4e04-9a73-835be4e84536
Lawton, Sandra
610566de-d907-4721-ac53-6ef72f9e708d
Santer, Miriam
3ce7e832-31eb-4d27-9876-3a1cd7f381dc
Greenwell, Kate, Ghio, Daniela, Muller, Ingrid, Roberts, Amanda, McNiven, Abigail, Lawton, Sandra and Santer, Miriam
(2021)
Taking charge of eczema self-management: a qualitative interview study with young people with eczema.
BMJ Open, 11 (1), , [e044005].
(doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044005).
Abstract
Objectives: To explore young people’s experiences of eczema self-management and interacting with health professionals.
Design: Secondary qualitative data analysis of data sets from two semistructured interview studies. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.
Setting: Participants were recruited from the UK primary care, dermatology departments and a community-based sample (eg, patient representative groups, social media).
Participants: Data included 28 interviews with young people with eczema aged 13–25 years (mean age=19.5 years; 20 female).
Results: Although topical treatments were generally perceived as effective, young people expressed doubts about their long-term effectiveness, and concerns around the safety and an over-reliance on topical corticosteroids. Participants welcomed the opportunity to take an active role in their eczema management, but new roles and responsibilities also came with initial apprehension and challenges, including communicating their treatment concerns and preferences with health professionals, feeling unprepared for transition to an adult clinic and obtaining treatments. Decisions regarding whether to engage in behaviours that would exacerbate their eczema (eg, irritants/triggers, scratching) were influenced by young people’s beliefs regarding negative consequences of these behaviours, and perceived control over the behaviour and its negative consequences.
Conclusions: Behavioural change interventions must address the treatment concerns of young people and equip them with the knowledge, skills and confidence to take an active role in their own eczema management.
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 9 December 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 6 January 2021
Published date: 6 January 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
Funding This study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research (RP-PG-0216-20007). Data collection for the SKINS project was funded by NIHR under its Research for Patient Benefit scheme (PB-PG-0213-30006).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). All rights reserved.
Keywords:
eczema, primary care, qualitative research
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 446355
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/446355
ISSN: 2044-6055
PURE UUID: 9067b190-98c1-4481-92dd-92d6d223d259
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Date deposited: 05 Feb 2021 17:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:45
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Contributors
Author:
Daniela Ghio
Author:
Amanda Roberts
Author:
Abigail McNiven
Author:
Sandra Lawton
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