The Use of Diaries in Sociological Research on Health Experience

Diaries have been relatively neglected as a sociological research method. Thispaper highlights the value of diary research, drawing on the literature onauto/biographies and health service research as well as a qualitative study ofneed and demand for primary health care, which used diaries and linked in-depthinterviews.In particular, data from the study are used to illustrate the role of the‘diary-interview’ method in offering a means to ‘observe’ behaviour which isinaccessible to participant observation. Five key advantages of thediary-interview are discussed, namely the potential of the ‘diary-interview’method to accommodate different response modes; the extent to which the methodcaptured diarists’ own priorities; the importance of the research process inilluminating the contexts within which helpseeking took place; the role ofdiaries as both a record of and reflection on the experience of illness and thevalue of the diary-interview method as a means of understanding what is ‘takenfor granted’ in accounts of health and illness.