Table 5 Quotes relating to knowledge and understanding

Lay understanding and explanation – "And I don't know what the cause of them is and was, I mean, I speculated and thought, could it be this and could it be that... I've been taking HRT and whether it coincided with that... prior to recently I suppose I had considered that they were caused by stress... Stress is a major thing with me, sort of getting very anxious and tense... Hormones was one of the things that I kept tossing about, they weren't migraines... I thought maybe it's diet, some of the things that I'm eating that could be triggering these things." (Patient 2107, Female, 52)

Lay understanding and explanation – "... I know my first... migraine that I ever had... was on the first day at first year at school... So whether it was because it was a stressful situation, or whether it was because I was starting to develop at that age, I don't know." (Patient 9423, Female, 40)

Seeking of information – "It might be the library if I'm on a particular quest for something... Or I might buy a magazine or, you know, any of the journals, nursing things... " (Patient 2466, Female, 53)

Seeking of information – "I'd like to know why. You know, I've heard different reasons for it but I haven't heard a proper reason for it. You know, why that, why that causes your headache. It would be nice to know." (Patient 552, Male, 38)

Worry – "Well, my friend, well, I suppose it was this chair he sat in and took a brain haemorrhage. My nephew had a brain haemorrhage...and I'm just frightened there's something going on." (Patient 4211, Female, 56)