ABSTRACT
As a part of the EIS-COVID project on the access and use of information during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile, the objective of this paper was to ascertain how people's informational environment was constructed during the first stage of the pandemic. It discusses the results of a qualitative study of people belonging to risk groups for COVID-19: people over 18 and under 65 with chronic diseases (hypertension and diabetes) and people 65 and over. Ninety semi-structured interviews were conducted in the Metropolitan and Valparaíso regions between September 2020 and January 2021. The results reveal the problematic nature of the information overload encountered by these groups and the strategies they used to navigate it: a) information avoidance; b) content corroboration and active search for reliable sources; and c) differentiated media use.
Este artículo se enmarca en el proyecto EIS-COVID sobre acceso y uso de información en el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19 en Chile. Su objetivo fue conocer cómo se constituyó el entorno informativo de las personas en la primera etapa de la pandemia. El artículo muestra los resultados de un estudio cualitativo enfocado en personas pertenecientes a grupos de riesgo por COVID-19: personas mayores de 18 y menores de 65 años con enfermedades crónicas (hipertensión y diabetes) y personas de 65 años y más. Se realizaron 90 entrevistas semiestructuradas en las regiones Metropolitana y de Valparaíso entre septiembre de 2020 y enero de 2021. Se identifica la problemática de la sobrecarga informativa para estos grupos y las estrategias que utilizaron para enfrentarla: a) la evitación de información, b) la corroboración de contenidos y búsqueda activa de fuentes confiables, o c) el uso diferenciado de medios.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Hypertension , Humans , Pandemics , Chile/epidemiology , COVID-19/epidemiology , Qualitative ResearchABSTRACT
Explicar los alcances del enfoque cualitativo de investigación social en salud a estudiantes de carreras de Ciencias de la Salud resulta un desafío en la entrega de la perspectiva antropológica y social en la formación profesional. Lo anterior debido a que estos estudiantes están acostumbrados a operar en las dicotomías naturaleza/cultura y ciencia/creencia. Como docentes,implica enseñarles a observar más allá de dichas dicotomías. También exige superar la limitada comprensión que puede haber sobre lo que es la aproximación cualitativa en investigación y lo que les puede ofrecer. Por ello, el propósito del estudio es reflexionar sobre los alcances que tienen estos desafíos en el aula, recurriendo a casos de ejercicios de diseños de investigación cualitativa en la carrera de Fonoaudiología de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Chile. Concluimos que un acercamiento temprano a metodologías cualitativas permite a estudiantes de pregrado desarrollar una visión crítica hacia las dicotomías reduccionistas respecto de la producción y validación de conocimientos. Además, promueve entender la dimensión social de la salud como un fenómeno individual y colectivo. También favorece concebir a la Medicina como un campo de trabajo transdisciplinar.
To explain the scope of the qualitative approach to undergraduate students of healthcare sciences is a challenge for those of us who must translate the anthropological and social perspectives to students used to operate within nature/culture and science/belief dichotomies. This challenge involves teaching to look beyond these dichotomies and forces us, as lecturers, to overcome the barriers or limited understanding that often characterize health professionals' relation to what qualitative approach can offer to them. Based upon the teaching experience of the authors, this article aims to reflect about the emergence of these challenges, turning, therefore, to examples of qualitative research design in the speech and hearing program at the faculty of medicine of the University of Chile. We believe that an early approach to qualitative methodologies would allow undergraduate students to develop a critical vision in relation to reductive dichotomies, in addition to promoting an understanding of health as an individual and collective phenomenon, and of medicine as a trans disciplinary field of work.
Subject(s)
Social Sciences , Qualitative Research , Education, Medical, Undergraduate , Health Sciences , Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences , Interdisciplinary CommunicationABSTRACT
Early reports suggest that lockdown measures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., social distancing) are having adverse consequences for people's mental health, including increases in maladaptive eating habits and body dissatisfaction. Certain groups, such as those with pre-existing mental health difficulties, may be especially at risk. The current study explored perceived changes in eating, exercise, and body image during lockdown within the United Kingdom, using an online survey (n = 264). There were large individual differences in perceived changes in eating, exercise, and body image in this period. Women were more likely than men to report increasing struggles with regulating eating, preoccupation with food and worsening body image. Those with a current/past diagnosis of eating disorders reported significantly greater difficulties in regulating eating, increased preoccupation with food, exercise thoughts and behaviours and concern about appearance, even when compared to those with other mental health and developmental disorders. Ongoing research to explore individual differences in the trajectories of change in eating, exercise and body image as lockdown measures ease will be important for understanding the full psychological impact of this pandemic and improve service and public health planning going forward.
