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‘Everyone assumes a man to be quite strong’: Men, masculinity and rheumatoid arthritis: A case-study approach

Flurey, Caroline, White, Alan, RODHAM, Karen, Kirwan, John, Noddings, Robert and Hewlett, Sarah (2017) ‘Everyone assumes a man to be quite strong’: Men, masculinity and rheumatoid arthritis: A case-study approach. Sociology of Health & Illness, 40 (1). pp. 115-129. ISSN 0141-9889

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Abstract or description

Current literature has overlooked the impact of chronic illness on masculine identity. We therefore aimed to investigate the impact of rheumatoid arthritis (a long term condition, affecting more women than men) on masculine identity. Six focus groups with 22 men with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (data reported elsewhere) followed by five one‐to‐one interviews with men (English, mean age: 59 years) sampled to reflect a heterogeneous experience of life with RA based on knowledge gained from the focus groups. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis and are presented as individual case studies. Whilst the case studies provide five distinct experiences, common themes can be drawn across them, such as the importance of paid work. The men needed to renegotiate their masculine identity to deal with their RA. Two dealt with this by pushing through pain to retain masculine activities, two replaced masculine roles they could no longer do with other roles, and one rejected masculinity completely. Men with long term conditions may need to re‐write their masculinity scripts to enable them to accept and adapt to their condition. However, some men struggle with this, which should be taken into consideration when designing self‐management services for men with long term conditions.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: ** From Crossref via Jisc Publications Router. ** Licence for VoR version of this article starting on 15-10-2017: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Uncontrolled Keywords: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Health Policy, Health(social science)
Faculty: School of Health and Social Care > Social Work and Social Welfare
SWORD Depositor: JISC pubrouter
Depositing User: JISC pubrouter
Date Deposited: 01 Oct 2018 09:27
Last Modified: 24 Feb 2023 03:49
Related URLs:
URI: https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/id/eprint/4768

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