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Framing Women's Understandings and Experiences of Lymphoedema Following Breast Cancer Surgery

Lymphoedema is a chronic health condition characterized by the accumulation of lymphatic fluid in the subcutaneous tissues resulting in arm swelling and can significantly affect physical and psychological health and QOL. Although significant research on lymphoedema has developed over the past decade, the literature reveals that there are gaps in knowledge on framing the illness, communication, and effective practices to improve the QOL for individuals living with lymphoedema. This research contributes to this growing field of research through a qualitative investigation of twelve women's reported understandings, experiences, and perceptions of lymphoedema using Brown’s (1995) theory of framing disease and illness.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living with lymphoedema to determine the impact of health messaging, to explore the ways in which these women made sense of conflicting messages on exercise, and to better understand how barriers to the effective adoption and integration of good management practices can be overcome.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OOU.#10393/19831
Date14 March 2011
CreatorsChun, Karen
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typethesis

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