Professional explanations of disease trajectories

The case of Type 2 Diabetes and Coronary Heart Disease

Authors

  • Diane Hemmings Brock University
  • Srikant Sarangi Cardiff University
  • Angus Clarke Cardiff University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v7i3.341

Keywords:

explanation, account, evidence, Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), research interview, rhetorical discourse analysis

Abstract

Media representation of health and illness is a common pursuit of discourse analysts. Less common is the study of how healthcare professionals and researchers provide explanations about health and disease in interview situations. In this paper we focus on professional explanations concerning Type 2 Diabetes and Coronary Heart Disease which are major health problems in the Western world, consuming a significant percentage of the health budget in many countries. Efforts to halt the increasing incidence are directed, in part, to understanding the causes of both illnesses. As part of a larger project aimed at understanding causal explanations for these conditions, we interviewed 18 clinicians and researchers working in the field in the UK to determine their views on why the incidence of these conditions continues to rise worldwide. We adopt a rhetorical discourse analytic perspective to highlight the function and significance of raising these issues as causal explanations. While scientific physiological and epidemiological explanations reflecting current research featured in the interviewees’ accounts, of greater interest were the explanations of socioeconomic and political factors that contribute to the ongoing epidemic through the mediating physiological processes.

Author Biographies

  • Diane Hemmings, Brock University

    Diane Hemmings holds an MSc in Nursing from McGill University. She began her PhD studies in rhetoric at the University of Maryland and received her PhD in Health Communication at Cardiff University with a thesis entitled The Role of Organisational Discourse in the Geneticisation of Medicine: A Rhetorical Analysis of Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer Websites. Prior to retuning to Canada she was Senior lecturer at the University of Worcester and Middlesex University in London. She currently lectures in the Linguistics and Intercultural Studies programmes at Brock University in Ontario, Canada.

  • Srikant Sarangi, Cardiff University

    Srikant Sarangi is Professor of Language and Communication and Director of the Health Communication Research Centre at Cardiff University. He is also Professor in Language and Communication at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim (Norway), Honorary Professor at Aalborg University (Denmark) and The University of Hong Kong. His research interests are in applied linguistics and institutional/professional discourse studies (e.g., healthcare, social work, bureaucracy, education). He is author and editor of twelve books, guest-editor of five journal special issues and has published more than two hundred journal articles and book chapters. He is the editor of Text & Talk as well as the founding editor of Communication & Medicine and with (C. N. Candlin) of Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice.

  • Angus Clarke, Cardiff University

    Angus Clarke studied genetics and then medicine as an undergraduate, then training in general medicine, paediatrics and clinical genetics. He is Professor and Consultant in Clinical Genetics at Cardiff University and has research interests in Rett syndrome, ectodermal dysplasia and the ethical, social and communication aspects of human genetics. He engages with the development of policy around these topics through work for the Chief Medical Officer, Wales and the British Society for Genetic Medicine.

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Published

2013-04-03

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Hemmings, D., Sarangi, S., & Clarke, A. (2013). Professional explanations of disease trajectories: The case of Type 2 Diabetes and Coronary Heart Disease. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 7(3), 341–369. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v7i3.341

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