The Use of Diaries in Sociological Research on Health Experience

Abstract

Diaries have been relatively neglected as a sociological research method. This paper highlights the value of diary research, drawing on the literature on auto/biographies and health service research as well as a qualitative study of need and demand for primary health care, which used diaries and linked in-depth interviews.In particular, data from the study are used to illustrate the role of the 'diary-interview' method in offering a means to 'observe' behaviour which is inaccessible to participant observation. Five key advantages of the diary-interview are discussed, namely the potential of the 'diary-interview' method to accommodate different response modes; the extent to which the method captured diarists' own priorities; the importance of the research process in illuminating the contexts within which helpseeking took place; the role of diaries as both a record of and reflection on the experience of illness and the value of the diary-interview method as a means of understanding what is 'taken for granted' in accounts of health and illness.Keywords: Diaries; Health Services Research; Need And Demand; Primary-Care; Qualitative Methods Introduction 1.1 This paper is based on a review of the extensive, but patchy literature on the use of diaries in sociological research. It explores some of the themes arising from this review in the context of a study of need and demand for primary health care, which used diaries and linked in-depth interviews. The study formed part of a research programme, based at the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre (NPCRDC) at the Public Health Research Resource Centre (PHRRC) at Salford University, to develop appropriate methods to investigate demand for formal and informal primary care (Nicolaas et al, 1997). One of the aims of the project reported here was to assess how valuable qualitative health diaries are in this field. Diaries as a Sociological Method 2.1The study was informed by two distinct sources, which have developed in parallel, with little cross-fertilization, namely the literature on auto/biography and 'life documents' and literature on diaries within health service research.Diaries in the Literature on 'Auto/Biography' or 'Documents of Life' 2.2 Allport (1943) identifies 3 distinct models of diary familiar in everyday life: the intimate journal, in which private thoughts and opinions are recorded, uncensored; the memoir -an 'impersonal' diary, often written with an eye to publication; and the log, which is a kind of listing of events, with relatively little commentary. While the memoir may assume an audience, the log and the intimate journal are essentially private documents, written primarily for the diarist themself. They are therefore constructed within the diarist's own frame of reference and can assume a forgiving, understanding reader (Allport, 1943;Jackson, 1994) for whom there is no need to present a best face. 2.3Within the autobiographical tradition, diaries are one of the 'documents of life', that is a 'self-revealing record that intenti...

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