Uncertainty of Social Network Members in the Case of Communication-Debilitating Illness or Injury

Abstract

Uncertainty is a consequential aspect of chronic illness for patients as well as their family and friends, yet little research has focused on how non-ill individuals experience uncertainty about the condition of someone in their social network. Thirty-one individuals with loved ones who had a communication-debilitating illness or injury (CDI) participated in one-on-one interviews about their experiences. We analyzed transcripts for participants' sources of uncertainty and for ways that they managed the uncertainty. Participants' experiences with uncertainty included questions about the condition itself and involved the impaired communication resulting from the CDI. Participants described managing uncertainty through information seeking, changing the ways they communicated with the person with the CDI, and creating schemata to help reduce uncertainty. We discuss the findings in terms of predominant conceptualizations of uncertainty in illness and address the prevalence of communication as both a significant source of uncertainty and an important means of managing uncertainty.

When the Cystic Fibrosis Label Does Not Fit: A Modified Uncertainty Theory

“…Even though parents continued to engage in this strategy at the time of the 12-month interview, for some the search shifted to wanting contact with other parents to share experiences on a personal and emotional level as compared with the factual information sought earlier. Other researchers have observed similar attempts to reduce uncertainty in other populations with serious health problems (Donovan-Kicken & Bute, 2008; Oliffe, Davison, Pickles, & Mróz, 2009).

I spent all of my time reading about cystic fibrosis and specifically that specific genotype.

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Psychosocial Challenges Experienced by Partners of People With Parkinson Disease

“…Prior research has established that, for patients, the experience of illness tends to be accompanied by uncertainty (e.g., Babrow, Kasch, & Ford, 1998;Brashers et al, 2003;Kosenko, Hurley, & Harvey, 2011;Martin, Stone, Scott, & Brashers, 2010;Mishel, 1988Mishel, , 1990. Less commonly, the uncertainty of a patient's loved ones has been documented (e.g., Donovan-Kicken & Bute, 2008;Goldsmith, 2009;Stone & Jones, 2009). The uncertainty of partners has not been examined in detail in the specific context of PD.…”

Quantifying health literacy and eHealth literacy using existing instruments and browser-based software for tracking online health information seeking behavior

“…Health information seeking is often differentiated from passive acquisition of health knowledge and has been described as undertaking purposeful activities to obtain health information, often to fulfil specific goals (Lambert, & Loiselle, 2007;Niederdeppe, Hornik, Kelly, Frosch, Romantan, Stevens, Barg, Weiner, Schwartz, 2007). Online health resources have been used as a means to cope with or reduce health-related uncertainty (Caiata-Zufferey et al, 2010;DeLorme, & Huh, 2009;Donovan-Kicken, & Bute, 2008;Stone et al, 2013;Oprescu et al, 2013), and Uncertainty Management Theory (UMT) (Brashers et al, 2000), a prominent communication uncertainty framework, has been applied to appraise the associations between online health information seeking and uncertainty management (Oprescu et al, 2013;Rains, 2014;Rains, & Tukachinsky, 2015a;Rains, & Tukachinsky, 2015b). A central tenet of UMT proposes that uncertainty is not necessarily a negative or positive experience, but that an individual will appraise the meaning of uncertainty, and the resulting emotional response will determine whether the uncertainty is evaluated as negative, positive or neutral.…”