Submitted by Catherine Atkins on Thu, 08/08/2024 - 13:47
Congratulations to Elspeth Davies who has published a paper in the Journal of Medical Anthropology*. The paper is the culmination of eighteen months of fieldwork, part of her PhD study, with one of the growing number of Facebook support groups for people diagnosed with Barrett’s oesophagus, a risk factor for oesophageal adenocarcinoma.
The fascinating paper explores how people learnt to live with their diagnosis of Barrett's oesophagus using Facebook support groups.
It describes how the different group members reacted to their diagnosis of Barrett’s oesophagus – some believing they were “lucky” to have had it detected and now to be under regular surveillance for it, others reacting very anxiously to the suggestion that they are at risk of progressing to cancer regardless of how high or low this statistical risk actually is.
The paper suggests that providing patients with information about risk does not always reduce people’s fear. It also suggests that the role of support groups may grow as more people are diagnosed with cancer risk conditions in the context of an overstretched National Health Service.
Elspeth is a PhD student in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, funded by Cancer Research UK’s Alliance for Cancer Early Detection (ACED).
You can read the open access paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2024.2376004
*Davies, E. (2024). Ambivalent Speculations: Learning to Live with Barrett’s Esophagus in the UK Using Facebook Support Groups. Medical Anthropology, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2024.2376004