‘Yummy or crummy?': the multisensory components of medicines-taking among HIV-positive youth
- Hodes, Rebecca, Vale, Beth, Toska, Elona, Cluver, Lucie, Dowse, Roslind, Ashorn, Mikael
- Authors: Hodes, Rebecca , Vale, Beth , Toska, Elona , Cluver, Lucie , Dowse, Roslind , Ashorn, Mikael
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156663 , vital:40036 , DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2018.1504103
- Description: The global rollout of Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) has revealed an urgent need to understand the medicines-taking practices of HIV-positive adolescents. In the last decade, the literature on the social determinants of health has broadened the evidence-base on ART adherence. Interdisciplinary studies have expanded conceptions of medicines-taking beyond clinical or health systems frameworks, recognising the importance of socio-structural conditions and of patients’ beliefs and experiences. Participatory research techniques which foreground the perspectives of adolescents provide greater insights still into their adherence. This article explores the use of participatory methods within a broader study on the social determinants of ART adherence among HIV-positive adolescents in South Africa. We describe how participatory methods were incorporated into this study (n = 1,059 in the quantitative baseline). We focus on an exercise, ‘Yummy or crummy?’, that explored the multisensory dimensions of medicines-taking, including their colour, smell, shape, and delivery mechanism. We describe two principal findings: first, adolescents’ preference for greater understanding of the chemical workings of medicines, manifested in their preferences for colour, taste and shape of medicines; and second, the vital relationship between sensory preferences and the social imperatives of discretion and confidentiality regarding HIV-status.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Hodes, Rebecca , Vale, Beth , Toska, Elona , Cluver, Lucie , Dowse, Roslind , Ashorn, Mikael
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/156663 , vital:40036 , DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2018.1504103
- Description: The global rollout of Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) has revealed an urgent need to understand the medicines-taking practices of HIV-positive adolescents. In the last decade, the literature on the social determinants of health has broadened the evidence-base on ART adherence. Interdisciplinary studies have expanded conceptions of medicines-taking beyond clinical or health systems frameworks, recognising the importance of socio-structural conditions and of patients’ beliefs and experiences. Participatory research techniques which foreground the perspectives of adolescents provide greater insights still into their adherence. This article explores the use of participatory methods within a broader study on the social determinants of ART adherence among HIV-positive adolescents in South Africa. We describe how participatory methods were incorporated into this study (n = 1,059 in the quantitative baseline). We focus on an exercise, ‘Yummy or crummy?’, that explored the multisensory dimensions of medicines-taking, including their colour, smell, shape, and delivery mechanism. We describe two principal findings: first, adolescents’ preference for greater understanding of the chemical workings of medicines, manifested in their preferences for colour, taste and shape of medicines; and second, the vital relationship between sensory preferences and the social imperatives of discretion and confidentiality regarding HIV-status.
- Full Text:
The evaluation of pharmaceutical pictograms in a low-literate South African population
- Dowse, Roslind, Ehlers, Martina S
- Authors: Dowse, Roslind , Ehlers, Martina S
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6362 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006058
- Description: An inability to read and understand written medication instructions may be a major contributory factor to non-compliance in certain patient populations, particularly in countries with a high illiteracy rate such as South Africa. Twenty three pictograms from the USP-DI and a corresponding set of 23 locally developed, culturally sensitive pictograms for conveying medication instructions were evaluated in 46 Xhosa respondents who had attended school for a maximum of 7 years. Respondents were tested for their interpretation of all 46 pictograms at the first interview and again 3 weeks later. The correct meaning of each pictogram was explained at the end of the first interview. Preference for either the Local or USP pictograms was determined. At the follow-up interview, 20 of the Local pictograms complied with the ANSI criterion of ≥85% comprehension, compared with 11 of the USP pictograms. Respondents indicated an overwhelming preference for the Local pictograms.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Dowse, Roslind , Ehlers, Martina S
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6362 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006058
- Description: An inability to read and understand written medication instructions may be a major contributory factor to non-compliance in certain patient populations, particularly in countries with a high illiteracy rate such as South Africa. Twenty three pictograms from the USP-DI and a corresponding set of 23 locally developed, culturally sensitive pictograms for conveying medication instructions were evaluated in 46 Xhosa respondents who had attended school for a maximum of 7 years. Respondents were tested for their interpretation of all 46 pictograms at the first interview and again 3 weeks later. The correct meaning of each pictogram was explained at the end of the first interview. Preference for either the Local or USP pictograms was determined. At the follow-up interview, 20 of the Local pictograms complied with the ANSI criterion of ≥85% comprehension, compared with 11 of the USP pictograms. Respondents indicated an overwhelming preference for the Local pictograms.
- Full Text:
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