Patients' stories: science, clinical facts or fairy tales?
OBJECTIVE
To explore potentials and attributes of the qualitative research interview as a tool for acquiring knowledge about illness.


METHODS
A qualitative approach, comparing knowledge about consultations originating from 1) data from interviews with immigrant female patients, and 2) evaluative data from registration forms from the doctors.


METHODS
24 Pakistani female patients, recruited from the appointment list at a primary health care centre in central Oslo were interviewed in their homes. Evaluation forms were filled in by the ten physicians consulted.


METHODS
Illness knowledge derived from different communicative contexts. Contextual prerequisites suggest potential roads to the inquiry of illness applicable in the clinical context. CASE STORIES: Patients' illness perspectives and resources were probably encouraged in the interview by means of discourse underlining the women's resources. This position may have emerged because the women were actually consulted by the interviewer. Dialogues actively seeking out the other person's illness perspective, as recommended in the qualitative interview, seem to encourage adequate exchange of medical information.


CONCLUSIONS
Pursuing and modifying strategies from the qualitative interview for exploration of illness may contribute to clinical facts as well as scientific knowledge concerning illness.
Naess
M H
MH
Department of General Practice, University of Oslo, Markveien legesenter, Norway.
Malterud
K
K
D000328:Adult; D003144:Communication Barriers; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008487:Medical History Taking; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D010154:Pakistan / Q000208:ethnology; D012017:Referral and Consultation