Table 2 Example of meaning unit, condensed meaning unit, interpretation, subthemes and themes from content analysis
From: Patients’ experiences of living with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS): a qualitative study
Meaning Unit | Condensed meaning unit, description close to the text | Interpretation (Code) | Subtheme | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|
(1) “When I come to the doctor and he asks: ‘How are things?’, I say: ‘All the same’. It’s a situation in which simply nothing gets better. So…so I get medicines again and… and again it all goes on.” | How are things, all the same, nothing gets better, I get medicines again, it all goes on. | Description of the patient’s condition | No improvement no change | Experience of symptoms |
(2) “I explain this to myself as follows: all the time I’ve been in an environment where there was a very tense and nervous atmosphere and it affected me...” | I explain this by being in a tense and nervous atmosphere, and it affected me. | The impact of a stressful environment on the patient | External social factors | Explanation of symptoms |