IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i16p9827-d884026.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Illness Experience of Long COVID Patients: A Qualitative Study Based on the Online Q&A Community Zhihu

Author

Listed:
  • Yi Wang

    (School of Journalism and Communication, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361000, China)

  • Sheng Bao

    (School of Journalism and Communication, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361000, China)

  • Yubing Chen

    (School of Journalism and Communication, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361000, China)

Abstract

Long COVID is a public health problem that cannot be ignored, and it is critical to understand the long COVID patients’ living situations and support this group through their illness narratives. This study is based on grounded theory, and coded the self-produced texts of long COVID patients on the largest online Q&A community in China, Zhihu APP, in an attempt to explore the illness experiences of long COVID patients in China and to understand how they adapt to their illness and reconstruct their lives. The results show that patients face not only the threat of pain from the illness itself, but also social stigma and discrimination. Patients turn their illness experiences into motivation to move forward and reconstruct self and life by ‘pushing forward the biographical flows again’, ‘impression management’ and ‘self-compassion’. These findings can help policy-makers and medical institutions to provide timely and appropriate policy support and psychological assistance to patients with long COVID, to create a supportive and inclusive social environment, and to reduce discrimination and stigma against them.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi Wang & Sheng Bao & Yubing Chen, 2022. "The Illness Experience of Long COVID Patients: A Qualitative Study Based on the Online Q&A Community Zhihu," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:9827-:d:884026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9827/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9827/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Megan Woods & Rob Macklin & Sarah Dawkins & Angela Martin, 2019. "Mental Illness, Social Suffering and Structural Antagonism in the Labour Process," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(6), pages 948-965, December.
    2. Phelan, Jo C. & Link, Bruce G. & Dovidio, John F., 2008. "Stigma and prejudice: One animal or two?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 358-367, August.
    3. Mingxia Xian & Chong Zhao & Yicheng Zhou, 2022. "From Bureaucratic Coordination to a Data-Driven Model: Transformation and Capacity Building of Community-Based Prevention and Control of Public Health Events," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-22, July.
    4. Hao Li & Ling Zheng & Hong Le & Lijun Zhuo & Qian Wu & Guoqing Ma & Hongbing Tao, 2020. "The Mediating Role of Internalized Stigma and Shame on the Relationship between COVID-19 Related Discrimination and Mental Health Outcomes among Back-to-School Students in Wuhan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-14, December.
    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. Emily E. Chasco & Kimberly Dukes & DeShauna Jones & Alejandro P. Comellas & Richard M. Hoffman & Alpana Garg, 2022. "Brain Fog and Fatigue following COVID-19 Infection: An Exploratory Study of Patient Experiences of Long COVID," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-12, November.

    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. Giulia Barbareschi & Mark T. Carew & Elizabeth Aderonke Johnson & Norah Kopi & Catherine Holloway, 2021. "“When They See a Wheelchair, They’ve Not Even Seen Me”—Factors Shaping the Experience of Disability Stigma and Discrimination in Kenya," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Rivers, Ian & Gonzalez, Cesar & Nodin, Nuno & Peel, Elizabeth & Tyler, Allan, 2018. "LGBT people and suicidality in youth: A qualitative study of perceptions of risk and protective circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1-8.
    3. O'Donnell, Aisling T. & Foran, Aoife-Marie, 2024. "The link between anticipated and internalized stigma and depression: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    4. Ida Viktoria Kolte & Lucia Pereira & Aparecida Benites & Islândia Maria Carvalho de Sousa & Paulo Cesar Basta, 2020. "The contribution of stigma to the transmission and treatment of tuberculosis in a hyperendemic indigenous population in Brazil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Frederick, Angela, 2017. "Visibility, respectability, and disengagement: The everyday resistance of mothers with disabilities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 131-138.
    6. Felner, Jennifer K. & Dudley, Terry D. & Ramirez-Valles, Jesus, 2018. "“Anywhere but here": Querying spatial stigma as a social determinant of health among youth of color accessing LGBTQ services in Chicago's Boystown," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 181-189.
    7. Carlos Arturo Cassiani-Miranda & Adalberto Campo-Arias & Andrés Felipe Tirado-Otálvaro & Luz Adriana Botero-Tobón & Luz Dary Upegui-Arango & María Soledad Rodríguez-Verdugo & María Elena Botero-, 2021. "Stigmatisation associated with COVID-19 in the general Colombian population," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(6), pages 728-736, September.
    8. Perry, Amanda & Lawrence, Vanessa & Henderson, Claire, 2020. "Stigmatisation of those with mental health conditions in the acute general hospital setting. A qualitative framework synthesis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    9. Coreil, Jeannine & Mayard, Gladys & Simpson, Kelly M. & Lauzardo, Michael & Zhu, Yiliang & Weiss, Mitchell, 2010. "Structural forces and the production of TB-related stigma among Haitians in two contexts," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(8), pages 1409-1417, October.
    10. Smith-Morris, Carolyn, 2017. "Epidemiological placism in public health emergencies: Ebola in two Dallas neighborhoods," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 106-114.
    11. Taylor, Catherine J., 2014. "Physiological stress response to loss of social influence and threats to masculinity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 51-59.
    12. Valarie Blake, 2017. "Rethinking the Americans with Disabilities Act’s Insurance Safe Harbor," Laws, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-14, November.
    13. Hansen, Helena & Bourgois, Philippe & Drucker, Ernest, 2014. "Pathologizing poverty: New forms of diagnosis, disability, and structural stigma under welfare reform," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 76-83.
    14. Ludwing Flórez-Salamanca & Edwin Herazo & Heidi Celina Oviedo & Adalberto Campo-Arias, 2014. "Prevalence and Predictors of High Sexual Prejudice Among Medical Students From Two Colombian Cities," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(2), pages 21582440145, June.
    15. Adalberto Campo-Arias & Guillermo A Ceballos-Ospino & Edwin Herazo, 2020. "Barriers to access to mental health services among Colombia outpatients," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(6), pages 600-606, September.
    16. Tiziana Ramaci & Massimiliano Barattucci & Caterina Ledda & Venerando Rapisarda, 2020. "Social Stigma during COVID-19 and its Impact on HCWs Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-13, May.
    17. West, Jessica S. & Smith, Sherri L. & Dupre, Matthew E., 2023. "The impact of hearing loss on trajectories of depressive symptoms in married couples," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).
    18. Jansen, Natalie Anne & Saint Onge, Jarron M., 2015. "An internet forum analysis of stigma power perceptions among women seeking fertility treatment in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 184-189.
    19. Mejia-Lancheros, Cilia & Lachaud, James & Woodhall-Melnik, Julia & O'Campo, Patricia & Hwang, Stephen W. & Stergiopoulos, Vicky, 2021. "Longitudinal interrelationships of mental health discrimination and stigma with housing and well-being outcomes in adults with mental illness and recent experience of homelessness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    20. Suzan M. Walters & Weiwei Liu & Phoebe Lamuda & Jimi Huh & Russell Brewer & O’Dell Johnson & Ricky N. Bluthenthal & Bruce Taylor & John A. Schneider, 2023. "A National Portrait of Public Attitudes toward Opioid Use in the US: A Latent Class Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-16, March.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:9827-:d:884026. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.