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FS08.1
What kind of knowledge generates patients’ actions?– an empirical study in relation to allergic contact dermatitis
Author(s) -
Noiesen Eline,
Agner T,
Larsen K
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
contact dermatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1600-0536
pISSN - 0105-1873
DOI - 10.1111/j.0105-1873.2004.0309bw.x
Subject(s) - contact allergy , everyday life , reading (process) , coping (psychology) , allergy , empirical research , social psychology , social class , psychology , medicine , contact dermatitis , psychiatry , epistemology , immunology , philosophy , political science , law
During the last two decades the incidence of contact allergy to preservatives in consumer products has increased. It is of crucial importance for the prognosis that sensitised patients avoid contact with the allergens, and they are informed how to take precautions, e.g. by reading the descriptions of contents on consumer products. Discrepancy between ‘doctors orders’ and patients’ actions is often taken as an expressions of patients’ lack of knowledge. However, sociologically inspired studies show that differences in social experiences and in social life circumstances non‐consciously lead to socially different ways of coping with illness. This study investigates in a sociological perspective, how people handle contact allergy in everyday life and the social genesis of their actions. Interviews were carried out with 8 women selected according to medical and sociological criteria. The study indicates that patients with contact allergy comply with ‘doctors orders’ in different ways depending on patients’ resources, possibilities and social class. The study also indicates, that information given by health staff to a considerable extent is directed to patients from the higher social classes, who possess the ability to read the linguistic difficult names of the preservatives and to a lesser extend to patients from lower social classes, who do not possess this ability.