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Janssens A, Drachmann D, Barnes-Cullen K, Carrigg A, Christesen HT, Futers B, Lavery YO, Palms T, Petersen JS, Shah P, Thornton P, Wolfsdorf J. An auto-ethnographic study of co-produced health research in a patient organisation: unpacking the good, the bad, and the unspoken. RESEARCH INVOLVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT 2024; 10:76. [PMID: 39044294 PMCID: PMC11265487 DOI: 10.1186/s40900-024-00609-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 07/08/2024] [Indexed: 07/25/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND In rare diseases, limited access to services and rare disease experts may force families to act as medical advocates for their child; they can volunteer to support clinician-initiated research or initiate and lead research themselves. Ketotic Hypoglycemia International (KHI) is a new, global organization for families affected by idiopathic ketotic hypoglycemia (IKH) and is run solely by volunteers. Doing research together, families and international experts in a collaborative process such as at KHI, also referred to as patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) or extreme citizen science, is often praised for its positive effects on the research and the stakeholders involved. METHODS We used auto-ethnographic narratives from parents and medical professionals in KHI to report on their experiences with co-produced health research. All co-authors wrote down their experiences in relation to three topics: time invested, work invested and power dynamics. RESULTS Whilst the parents and health care professionals felt a new hope for (their) children with IKH, they also felt pressure to contribute time or to be flexible in how and when they dedicated time towards the organization. The power dynamics were characterised by a change in the relationship between the parents and medical experts; the parent being taught by the expert shifted to the expert learning from the lived experience of the parent. Both parents and medical experts struggled with maintaining boundaries and safeguarding their mental health. CONCLUSION Our findings call for the need to secure and prioritize funding for patient organizations, to enable them to create the sustainable architecture required for meaningful PPIE within these organizations. The morals and often deeply personal reasons for engaging with voluntary work in health research, can lead to overstepping of boundaries. As a result of our research, we call for the development of ethics of care guidelines within collaborative health research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Astrid Janssens
- Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Bioethics & Health Humanities, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- Department of Public Health, User Perspective and Community-Based Interventions, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
- Centre for Research with Patients and Relatives, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
| | - Danielle Drachmann
- Department of Public Health, User Perspective and Community-Based Interventions, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
- Patient-Centered Research, Evidera, London, UK
| | | | - Austin Carrigg
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
| | - Henrik Thybo Christesen
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
- Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
- Hans Christian Andersen Children's Hospital, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark
| | - Becky Futers
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
| | - Yvette Ollada Lavery
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
- Medical Ethics Committee, UCI Health, Orange, CA, USA
| | - Tiffany Palms
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
| | - Jacob Sten Petersen
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
- Novo Nordisk, Dicerna, Lexington, USA
| | - Pratik Shah
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
- The Royal London Children's Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK
| | - Paul Thornton
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
- Cook Children's Medical Center, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
| | - Joseph Wolfsdorf
- Ketotic Hypoglycemia International, Skanderborg, Denmark
- Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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Røssvoll TB, Liabo K, Hanssen TA, Rosenvinge JH, Sundkvist E, Pettersen G. What motivates public collaborators to become and stay involved in health research? RESEARCH INVOLVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT 2024; 10:24. [PMID: 38347609 PMCID: PMC10863223 DOI: 10.1186/s40900-024-00555-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/15/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND People with lived experience of health and illness are increasingly being involved in research. Knowing what creates interest in becoming involved in health research may help identify appropriate ways of facilitating meaningful involvement. The study aimed to investigate why people became public collaborators in health research and what helped sustain their commitment to staying involved. METHODS Semistructured individual qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 Norwegian public collaborators recruited from patient organisations. To enhance the quality and relevance of this study, three public collaborators were involved in framing the study and in the data analysis. One of them is a coauthor of this paper. The interviews were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis, and two themes were generated. RESULTS The first theme, 'research as a vehicle to impact' showed how interest in becoming involved in research was founded on the possibility of impacting healthcare through research. Other inspiring factors were how they appraised the relevance of the research, in addition to the public collaborators' own sense of moral duty to advocate for research related to their own as well as others, illnesses or diseases. The second theme, ''Acknowledgement and accessibility', framed how the participants perceived appreciation of experiential knowledge as crucial for maintaining motivation in their role as public collaborators. Other promoters of sustained involvement presented were training for both public collaborators and researchers, adequate allowance as a means for visualising and valuing PPI, and accessible language. CONCLUSIONS This study contributes to the understanding of how to facilitate meaningful and sustainable PPI, which requires a safe space for collaboration and attention to accessibility. Facilitating meaningful involvement may, in turn, increase the potential impact and sustainability of PPI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toril Beate Røssvoll
- Department of Health and Care Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 9037, Tromsø, Norway.
| | - Kristin Liabo
- College of Medicine and Health, PenCLAHRC Patient and Public Involvement Team, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK
| | - Tove Aminda Hanssen
- Department of Health and Care Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 9037, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Jan H Rosenvinge
- Department of Health and Care Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 9037, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Elisabeth Sundkvist
- Centre for Shared Decision Making, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Gunn Pettersen
- Department of Health and Care Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 9037, Tromsø, Norway
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Malm C, Jönson H, Andersson S, Hanson E. A balance between putting on the researcher's hat and being a fellow human being: a researcher perspective on informal carer involvement in health and social care research. Health Res Policy Syst 2022; 20:135. [PMID: 36527014 PMCID: PMC9756709 DOI: 10.1186/s12961-022-00946-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2022] [Accepted: 12/05/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Public involvement in health and social care research is increasingly prioritized by policy-makers and research funders. Often, the impact of the involvement is described in terms of how it has contributed to the research outcomes and how it has affected the involved members of the public. There is a dearth of studies reporting from the perspective of researchers themselves of having involved members of the public in their research. Nevertheless, there is a general expectation for researchers to accept and embrace public involvement in research. This study aims to explore researchers' views of involving informal carers in health and social care research. METHODS Eleven individual in-depth interviews with researchers in the fields of social work, caring science, health science and medical science constituted the dataset of this qualitative study, inspired by discourse psychology. RESULTS The qualitative data analysis resulted in two interpretative repertoires describing researchers' views of involving informal carers in research, "Philosophy of Science" and "Personal relationships and growth". Both repertoires need to be recognized; however, as of today, the Philosophy of Science repertoire is more acknowledged, while the second repertoire describing empathy, relationships and emotions may be viewed as the researcher being "unprofessional". Further, the findings highlighted the dual perspective of being a researcher and a carer as creating opportunities for growth on the part of the researcher, on both a professional and a personal level. CONCLUSIONS Researchers and their research work would benefit from acknowledging, discussing and reporting both interpretative repertoires in their publications, as well as recognizing the benefit of dialectal positions, for example, having a dual perspective as both a researcher and an informal carer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camilla Malm
- grid.8148.50000 0001 2174 3522Department of Social Work, Swedish Family Care Competence Centre, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden
| | - Håkan Jönson
- grid.4514.40000 0001 0930 2361School of Social Work, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Stefan Andersson
- grid.8148.50000 0001 2174 3522Department of Health and Caring Sciences, Swedish Family Care Competence Centre, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden
| | - Elizabeth Hanson
- grid.8148.50000 0001 2174 3522Department of Health and Caring Sciences, Swedish Family Care Competence Centre, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden
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Kylén M, Slaug B, Jonsson O, Iwarsson S, Schmidt SM. User involvement in ageing and health research: a survey of researchers' and older adults' perspectives. Health Res Policy Syst 2022; 20:93. [PMID: 36050697 PMCID: PMC9438331 DOI: 10.1186/s12961-022-00894-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2022] [Accepted: 08/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND User involvement in research has rapidly increased and is often a precondition to obtain research funding. Benefits such as effectiveness and increased relevance of research are described in the literature, but the evidence to support this is weak. Little is known about ageing and health researchers' experiences and perspectives towards user involvement in research, and their attitudes towards user involvement compared to the attitudes of the users involved are largely unknown. To examine researchers' experiences and perspectives of user involvement in research on ageing and health, and to compare their attitudes towards user involvement to the attitudes of older adults in the general population. METHODS A panel study survey was used to elicit responses from researchers in ageing and health as well as from older adults (aged 60 years and older). The researcher sample (N = 64) completed the survey online, while the older adult sample (N = 881) could choose among three different options to complete the survey (online, paper format, telephone). A professional survey company collected the data. Descriptive statistics, exploratory comparisons and descriptive qualitative content analysis were used to analyse the data. RESULTS More than half (58%) of the researchers had previous experience of involving different categories of users in a wide range of research activities. The most frequent motivation for involving users was to ensure that the research produced is relevant to the target population. A majority (86%) reported benefits, and more than half (59%) described challenges. Differences in attitudes were found between researchers and older adults in the general population. CONCLUSIONS Ageing and health researchers involve users in their research to improve quality and ensure relevance, but there is no consensus among them whether users should be involved in publicly funded research. While several challenges were identified, training, institutional support and resources from funders could alleviate many of these. Findings reveal significant differences in attitudes between older adults in the general population and researchers. Further research with comparable larger samples is needed to confirm and understand the possible consequences such controversy might have and how to solve them. IRRID (International Registered Report Identifier): RR2-10.2196/17759.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maya Kylén
- Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, HSC Margaretavägen 1 B, 22240, Lund, Sweden.
| | - Björn Slaug
- Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, HSC Margaretavägen 1 B, 22240, Lund, Sweden
| | - Oskar Jonsson
- Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, HSC Margaretavägen 1 B, 22240, Lund, Sweden
| | - Susanne Iwarsson
- Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, HSC Margaretavägen 1 B, 22240, Lund, Sweden
| | - Steven M Schmidt
- Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, HSC Margaretavägen 1 B, 22240, Lund, Sweden
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Frögren J, Schmidt SM, Kylén M, Jonsson O, Slaug B, Iwarsson S. Awareness of and attitudes towards public involvement in research on ageing and health among older people in Sweden. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0269993. [PMID: 35727745 PMCID: PMC9212166 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269993] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 06/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND While the importance of involving older people in research is increasingly acknowledged, quantitative studies exploring the perspectives of larger samples of older people who take an active role in research on ageing and health are scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate the awareness of and attitudes towards public involvement in research on ageing and health among older people in Sweden. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data derived from a survey (N = 881) of people aged 60 years or older in Sweden. Demographics, self-rated health, and attitudes were analysed using descriptive statistics. Awareness of and previous active involvement in research were analysed using chi-square tests and Mann Whitney tests. Factors associated with willingness to be actively involved in research were determined by logistic regressions. RESULTS Of the 26% who responded (N = 881), 39% (n = 343) were aware that they could be actively involved in research. Awareness and previous active involvement in research were significantly associated with a higher level of education. Public involvement was believed to enhance research communication and enable valuable contributions related to ageing. The proportion of respondents who were willing to be actively involved in research was significantly higher for respondents with previous experience and a higher level of education. CONCLUSIONS Engaging older people in Sweden in research targeting active involvement in research presents a challenge. The study shows an over-representation of people with higher education, who tend to be more aware, have previous experience, and are more willing to be involved in research with public involvement. This implies a risk that groups with lower education are not represented, and that knowledge co-produced with mostly highly educated groups will lead to a biased picture. Further studies are needed to understand how an increased awareness of research and willingness to participate can be achieved. IRRID: RR2-10.2196/17759.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joakim Frögren
- Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Maya Kylén
- Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Oskar Jonsson
- Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Björn Slaug
- Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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