Qualitative research on outpatients' explanatory models / 日本プライマリ・ケア連合学会誌

ABSTRACT

<b><i>Abstract</i></b><br><b>Introduction</b> The purpose of this study was to identify the function of outpatients' explanatory models by qualitative research.<br><b>Methods</b> Medical records of ninety one patients from our department were investigated from 1st September 2011 to 28th February 2012 inclusive, and were analyzed by the modified grounded theory approach.<br><b>Results</b> The explanatory models were categorized into three groups according to their narrative, which included the following Diagnostic model, Pathological model and Psycho-social model. Patients in the psycho-social model had no organic diseases except one pneumonia case. In the other two models, one half of the patients had organic diseases. However, the patients' self-diagnoses were frequently incorrect. We considered that their diagnostically incorrect narratives contained potential hidden messages. We therefore generated an hypothesis that patients projected their cognitive images onto the diseases they suspected.<br><b>Conclusion</b> We consider that a patient's self-diagnosis, such as cancer or cerebral infarction, appears to contain both medical information and a metaphorical message. Further investigation is needed to understand the meaning of such hidden messages.