"You get old, you get breathless, and you die": chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Barnsley, UK.
We report patients, family members and health professionals' experiences of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in Barnsley, northern England. A widespread belief that having "bad lungs" is part of normal ageing shapes everyday experience in this former mining town. People with COPD, and their families, link its cause to the areas industrial past and are sceptical of a medical orthodoxy that attributes cause to smoking. They doubt doctors' objectivity. Encouraging uptake of care, promoting smoking cessation, and developing care planning would be enhanced by engaging with the significance of place in the social narrative of health evident in this town.
School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, Richmond Road, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK. N.A.Small@bradford.ac.uk
Nell
N
Small
Clare
C
Gardiner
Sarah
S
Barnes
Merryn
M
Gott
David
D
Halpin
Sheila
S
Payne
David
D
Seamark
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003032:Coal Mining; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000523:psychology