Table 7 Information

Valued information

‘I talked to the doctor and the dietician, I dropped to ten and a half stone, I listened to what she said.’ (M, 74, NI, G NA (41), D+7 (29)).

‘I thought the (SPHERE) booklet was a good help… the practice nurse went through it with me… then I went through it periodically when I came across it in the house.’ (M, 65, NI, G NA (41), D+6 (29)).

Inadequate information

‘Where do you go when you want to know something? I mean, somebody says you can look it up on the computer.... but where....?’ (F, 77, RoI, G-6 (0), D-5 (36)).

‘Some people say white bread’s bad for you, brown bread’s good for you, others say the opposite so who do you believe?’ (M, 65, NI, G NA, D-20 (20)).

‘In the brochures from the heart association they had a thing about.... beta blockers were a waste of time.... you never know, you could be taking the wrong tablet.’ (M, 75, NI, G+63 (119), D-3 (60)).

‘Some of it can be very difficult to read. They could.... cut away a lot of the medical terms.’ (M, 54, RoI, G NA (13), D-3 (49)).

‘Something where you don’t have to get a dictionary out to look up the words.’ (F, 63, RoI, G NA, D+35 (45)).

‘They didn’t know.... whether it was the stomach, whether it was the heart.’ (M, 71, NI, G-3 (21), D-1 (28)).

‘Some say it was a heart attack and some say it was a stroke.’ (M, 65, NI, G NA, D-20 (20)).

Information not translated into practice

‘I read the Daily Mail from cover to cover. Tuesday’s Mail is medical health and sometimes it’s very good.’ (F, 86, NI, G NA, D-10 (30)).

‘When you go to your doctor you can say I was reading about this on the net and he can explain it to you.’ (M, 54, RoI, G NA (13), D-3 (49)).

‘It (SPHERE booklet) sets out everything you need to know… it’s an excellent booklet… I didn’t refer to it that much… I would have had a look through it at the very, very beginning.’ (M, 48, RoI, G-5 (35), D-9 (28)).