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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Older people in the field of medication | | Author(s) | Kirsi Lumme-Sandt, Pekka Virtanen |
| Journal title | Sociology of Health & Illness, vol 24, no 3, May 2002 |
| Pages | pp 285-304 |
| Keywords | Patients ; Attitude ; Drugs ; Finland. |
| Annotation | How older people talk about themselves as users of medical drugs and the factors that are important in their medication are considered. This study is based on focus group discussions with Finnish people aged over 65 years. The main participants were users and doctors; pharmacists had only a marginal role as suppliers of medical drugs. It was clearly important for participants to express their appreciation towards doctors, the dominant actors in the field of medication. The most important theme in the discussions, however, was the independence of the users themselves. By assuming responsibility for the use of their medication and by applying their own initiative, these older people were able to gain a meaningful position in the field of medication. Analysis of the discussion is based on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of social field and habitus (a set of practices shared by a group of individuals). The habitus of a patient in the health care setting is a compliant patient. The habitus outside health care, on the other hand, requires that people are active and reasonable users. In individual practices, it is possible to detect logics of both sides of habitus. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020521219 A |
| Classmark | LF: DP: LLD: 76L |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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