IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v99y2013icp49-55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“I was pretty sure I had the 'flu”: Qualitative description of confirmed-influenza symptoms

Author

Listed:
  • Jutel, Annemarie
  • Banister, Elizabeth

Abstract

Influenza is a common infectious disease, yet its diagnosis is rarely confirmed, rather is presumed in the presence of non-specific clinical symptoms. Public health organisations enlist the lay person in the diagnostic process, as infection containment initiatives focus on encouraging individuals with influenza-like illness to stay at home, seeking medical attention only in the presence of complications. While lay self-diagnosis of influenza has been confirmed to be neither specific nor sensitive, little is known about how people with confirmed-influenza infection describe their illness. In this article we report the descriptions of influenza by 21 individuals with rapid antigen test-kit confirmation of influenza A or B and we discuss their recommendations for management of future influenza infection. Semi-structured interviews reveal that the variability in symptoms and severity of disease makes a standard description of influenza elusive. Almost all participants had a cough, sweats, runny nose and muscle aches, but the prominence of these symptoms varied significantly between participants. Most participants were preoccupied with diagnostic certainty, and would seek medical attention in a future similar illness episode. This study underlined a conditioned recourse to medical authority for confirmation of diagnosis which challenges current public health strategies and should be further explored in order to determine its wider impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Jutel, Annemarie & Banister, Elizabeth, 2013. "“I was pretty sure I had the 'flu”: Qualitative description of confirmed-influenza symptoms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 49-55.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:99:y:2013:i:c:p:49-55
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.10.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953613005595
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.10.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Swaan, Abram, 1989. "The reluctant imperialism of the medical profession," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1165-1170, January.
    2. Prior, Lindsay & Evans, Meirion R. & Prout, Hayley, 2011. "Talking about colds and flu: The lay diagnosis of two common illnesses among older British people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 922-928, September.
    3. Dumit, Joseph, 2006. "Illnesses you have to fight to get: Facts as forces in uncertain, emergent illnesses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 577-590, February.
    4. Ebeling, Mary, 2011. "'Get with the Program!': Pharmaceutical marketing, symptom checklists and self-diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 825-832, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Locock, Louise & Nettleton, Sarah & Kirkpatrick, Susan & Ryan, Sara & Ziebland, Sue, 2016. "‘I knew before I was told’: Breaches, cues and clues in the diagnostic assemblage," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 85-92.
    2. Baruch Fischhoff & Gabrielle Wong‐Parodi & Dana Rose Garfin & E. Alison Holman & Roxane Cohen Silver, 2018. "Public Understanding of Ebola Risks: Mastering an Unfamiliar Threat," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 71-83, January.
    3. Lupton, Deborah & Jutel, Annemarie, 2015. "‘It's like having a physician in your pocket!’ A critical analysis of self-diagnosis smartphone apps," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 128-135.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Locock, Louise & Nettleton, Sarah & Kirkpatrick, Susan & Ryan, Sara & Ziebland, Sue, 2016. "‘I knew before I was told’: Breaches, cues and clues in the diagnostic assemblage," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 85-92.
    2. Hasson, Katie Ann, 2012. "From bodies to lives, complainers to consumers: Measuring menstrual excess," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1729-1736.
    3. Jovanovic, Maja, 2014. "Creating the ‘dis-ease’ of high cholesterol: A sociology of diagnosis reception analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 120-128.
    4. Trundle, Catherine, 2011. "Biopolitical endpoints: Diagnosing a deserving British nuclear test veteran," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 882-888, September.
    5. Phillips, Tarryn, 2012. "Repressive authenticity in the quest for legitimacy: Surveillance and the contested illness lawsuit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1762-1768.
    6. Schaepe, Karen Sue, 2011. "Bad news and first impressions: Patient and family caregiver accounts of learning the cancer diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 912-921, September.
    7. Vololona Rabeharisoa & Michel Callon & Angela Marques Filipe & João Arriscado Nunes & Florence Paterson & Frédéric Vergnaud, 2012. "The dynamics of causes and conditions: the rareness of diseases in French and Portuguese patients' organizations' engagement in research," CSI Working Papers Series 026, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (CSI), Mines ParisTech.
    8. Madeleine Akrich, 2010. "From Communities of Practice to Epistemic Communities: Health Mobilizations on the Internet," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 15(2), pages 116-132, May.
    9. Brian Walitt & Richard L Nahin & Robert S Katz & Martin J Bergman & Frederick Wolfe, 2015. "The Prevalence and Characteristics of Fibromyalgia in the 2012 National Health Interview Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-16, September.
    10. Claire Edwards & Etaoine Howlett & Madeleine Akrich & Vololona Rabeharisoa, 2012. "Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in France and Ireland: parents' groups' scientific and political framing of an unsettled condition," CSI Working Papers Series 024, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (CSI), Mines ParisTech.
    11. Cohn, Simon & Dyson, Clare & Wessely, S., 2008. "Early accounts of Gulf War illness and the construction of narratives in UK service personnel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 1641-1649, December.
    12. Vololona Rabeharisoa & Orla O'Donovan, 2013. "‘Europe of patients, Europe for patients’: the Europeanization of healthcare policies by European patients’ organizations," CSI Working Papers Series 030, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (CSI), Mines ParisTech.
    13. Bell, Susan E. & Figert, Anne E., 2012. "Medicalization and pharmaceuticalization at the intersections: Looking backward, sideways and forward," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 775-783.
    14. Kuchinskaya, Olga & Parker, Lisa S., 2018. "‘Recurrent losers unite’: Online forums, evidence-based activism, and pregnancy loss," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 74-80.
    15. Joyce, Kelly & Jeske, Melanie, 2020. "Using autoimmune strategically: Diagnostic lumping, splitting, and the experience of illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    16. Eaves, Emery R., 2015. "“Just Advil”: Harm reduction and identity construction in the consumption of over-the-counter medication for chronic pain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 147-154.
    17. Wild, Cervantée & MacLean, Alice & Nettleton, Sarah & Hunt, Kate & Ziebland, Sue, 2024. "The double invisibility of Long Covid in children," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 347(C).
    18. Jutel, Annemarie, 2010. "Framing disease: The example of female hypoactive sexual desire disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1084-1090, April.
    19. Greco, Monica, 2012. "The classification and nomenclature of ‘medically unexplained symptoms’: Conflict, performativity and critique," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2362-2369.
    20. Rotolo, Thomas & Lengefeld, Michael, 2020. "Clearing the cobwebs: An analysis of the timing of youth concussion legislation in U.S. states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:99:y:2013:i:c:p:49-55. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.