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Explaining Illness

Research, Theory, and Strategies

• Edited by Bryan B. Whaley

• Price: $47.95
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 376
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 1st November 1999
• ISBN: 978-0-8058-3112-2

About the Book

Understanding one's health conditions plays a key role in a patient's response to illness, influencing stress levels and the likelihood of following treatment regimens and advice. Thus, the explanation of illness is a critical component of the interactions between health care providers and their patients. Emphasizing these exchanges and their potential for improving health and well being, Bryan B. Whaley has assembled this collection to serve both as a foundation for further research on explaining illness and as a resource for provider-patient interaction.

Contributors from the communication and health care disciplines examine the purpose and methods of explaining illness, as well as the role that illness explanations play in framing and reframing meaning and uncertainty regarding one's health welfare. Including theoretical, developmental, and cultural factors, the elegance of this book is the richness in the differences among populations and communication strategies, and the articulation of the intricacies of language, illness, and culture in the explanations.

As a resource for scholars and students of communication, medicine, nursing, public health, social work, and related areas, this volume establishes a benchmark from which to examine and evaluate current theory and strategies in explaining illness, and to launch systematic research endeavors. Health practitioners will also find the book invaluable in their exchanges with their patients, as a unique source of information on the factors influencing the explanation of illness.

Table of Contents

Contents: R.M. Glass, Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgments. Part I:Foundational Theoretical Issues. T.L. Thompson, The Nature and Language of Illness Explanations. A.S. Babrow, S.C. Hines, C.R. Kasch, Managing Uncertainty in Illness Explanation: An Application of Problematic Integration Theory. K.E. Rowan, Explaining Illness Through the Mass Media: The Problem-Solving Perspective. C.M. Gillotti, J. Applegate, Explaining Illness as Bad News: Individual Differences in Explaining Illness-Related Information. Part II:Populations and New Sources of Explanation. T.C. Davis, M.V. Williams, W.T. Branch, K.W. Green, Explaining Illness to Patients With Limited Literacy. A.S. Gabbard-Alley, Explaining Illness: An Examination of Message Strategies and Gender. J.F. Nussbaum, L. Pecchioni, J.A. Grant, A. Folwell, Explaining Illness to Older Adults: The Complexities of the Provider-Patient Interaction as We Age. B.B. Whaley, Explaining Illness to Children: Theory, Strategies, and Future Inquiry. J.C. Schommer, Pharmacists' New Communicative Role: Explaining Illness and Medicine to Patients. Part III:Cocultural Issues and Explaining Illness. L. Tom-Orme, Native Americans Explaining Illness: Storytelling as Illness Experience. D. Cora-Bramble, L. Williams, Explaining Illness to Latinos: Cultural Foundations and Messages. G.A. Yep, Explaining Illness to Asian and Pacific Islander Americans: Culture, Communication, and Boundary Regulation. C. Stroman, Explaining Illness to African Americans: Employing Cultural Concerns With Strategies. B. Korsch, Commentary and Continued Concerns.