Kadi Lubi | Tallinn Health Care College (original) (raw)

Papers by Kadi Lubi

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnic Identity in Transition: the Potential Impact of Ethnicity on Chronic Illness’ Medication Adherence in Post-Soviet Country

Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 2021

Previously, it has been shown that factors like ethnicity and proficiency of state’s official lan... more Previously, it has been shown that factors like ethnicity and proficiency of state’s official language not only influence self-management abilities and medication adherence but may also indicate the level of trust in physicians, medication, and healthcare system. This research aims to examine the potential impact of ethnicity on medication adherence based on the example of a post-Soviet country. The research was carried out as a quantitative survey among 303 hypertension and type 2 diabetes patients in Estonia, involving participants from ethnic majority and minority. Research was conducted in community pharmacies and data analysed statistically with SPSS. The findings were opposite to previous research. Although members of the ethnic minority used less illness-related sources, these sources relied more on evidence-based medicine compared to the ethnic majority. Because of this, medication adherence was also slightly higher for the ethnic minority compared to the majority. Therefore, these findings indicate trust in medical authorities, their decisions, and recommendations. There was a statistically significant relationship between general and illness-related information-seeking activity; however, medication adherence was not related to information-seeking activity. The research outlines that in addition to ethnolinguistic aspect, also potential cultural influence might determine the trust in medicine and medication adherence.

Research paper thumbnail of Practice theoretical approach on the reasons why target group women refrain from taking breast cancer screening

Patient Education and Counseling, 2021

Objective Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Despite the availability of effective... more Objective
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Despite the availability of effective breast cancer screening programmes, there are only six countries in the European Union reaching the recommended target rate of 70% screened. In addition to the individual reasons for refraining from breast cancer screening, this research aims to follow earlier suggestions to use a practice theoretical approach.

Methods
The study sites were Estonia and Latvia, where 9 and 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted, respectively. Convenience and snowball sampling methods were used. The research was approved by ethics committees in both countries. The interviews passed textual analysis and coding.

Results
The findings revealed that there are three major types of reasons – habitual, practical, and emotional – that influence the formation of the final decision to participate in breast cancer screening.

Conclusion
The implementation of an individualistic approach is not sufficient to bring along desired health behaviour. All groups of reasons, individual and societal context are involved in the decision formation. Thus, structurally provided approaches and messages should be re-conceptualised and re-designed accordingly.

Practice implications
Future screening related campaigns and public health education should address the concerns derived from different types of reasons for refraining from screening.

Research paper thumbnail of THE CHALLENGES OF COVID-19: Global Health and Inequality.

ESA RN16 NewsLetter Special Issue 11, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold across the world its unequal impact quickly became apparent. R... more As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold across the world its unequal impact quickly became apparent. Regrettably the pandemic has underscored what is already known from over a century of research on health inequalities: those who suffer social, economic and political disadvantage, such as the elderly, the socially deprived, and some ethnic minorities are being disproportionally infected and eventually are dying from the disease. While debate on the origins of COVID-19 and the question of whether a pandemic could have been prevented will rage for some time, it is obvious right now that so many cases of infection culminating in death are associated with trenchant inequalities across Europe (and beyond) and could have been prevented. While many political and social media pundits predict the dawn of a new, more politically and socially responsible social order, the long history of health inequality suggests that this is wishful thinking at best.

Research paper thumbnail of "There is no need to tell me too much": chronically ill patients'strategies of controlling information inflow

International Journal of Communication and Health, 2013

Chronic disease patients' satisfaction with information and activity of information seeking behav... more Chronic disease patients' satisfaction with information and activity of information seeking behavior are connected with subjective well-being and successful adaptation with the disease. However, it is mainly the aspect of the content of information that has been discussed, whereas delivery time and amount of information have received very little attention. The present article discusses how and why patients try to control the inflow of disease-related information and how to maintain patient's active participation in their disease-related communication process.The empirical analysis is based on the patients' own descriptions of their information needs and "non-needs" that became evident in the qualitative text analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with Parkinson's disease patients in Estonia. Our study reveals that patients want information to be accessible and in an amount that suits their contextually raised needs.

Research paper thumbnail of Patients’ interpretations of CAM-related information: Manoeuvring between patient and consumer positionings

Patients’ health-related information reception and interpretation strategies have been analysed m... more Patients’ health-related information reception and interpretation strategies have been analysed mainly from the functional (i.e. comprehension) and psychological points of view (i.e. adaptation to disease-related physical and social problems). Analysing patients’ reception and interpretation strategies within a power context is relatively rare. This study examines chronically ill peoples’ reception and communication regarding the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
This study looks through the prism of CAM-related (auto)communication at how chronically ill people manage to live with their illnesses, the related social structural prescriptions and relations with the specific needs of their illnesses and, vice versa, the relations of their illnesses to the surrounding social structure.
CAM use is associated with several general concepts connected with the medical system and social development, such as medicalization, mediatization, the risk society (and individualization), and the shift in power relations within the medical system. On the one hand, the usage of CAM is encouraged by the extensive spread of health-related mass media content, products and services, late modern scepticism about the effectiveness of science and technology, and the commodification of medical expertise. On the other hand, CAM is somewhat discouraged by the actors in the medical system and is sometimes regarded as dangerous practice. Thus patients who want to use alternative treatments have to take care to avoid coming into conflict with the applicable rules and regulations and figure out how to achieve better subjective well-being using available resources. Thus the analysis of CAM-related communication practices also reveals new aspects of patient agency. The agency is independently maintained by dynamic manoeuvring between medical and economic fields and relevant information environments. The question of what kind of support might be needed to avoid harmful health effects and an increase in health-related social inequalities requires further attention in related policy planning.

Research paper thumbnail of The adaptation of everyday practices in the adoption of chronic illness

Health (London, England : 1997), 2017

This article uses social practice theory to examine the role of information-seeking in the mainte... more This article uses social practice theory to examine the role of information-seeking in the maintenance of existing lifestyle and illness-related adjustments in the context of chronic illnesses. The research findings are derived from a thematic analysis of 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Estonian Parkinson's disease patients. The coding scheme bases on the four practice elements outlined by Schatzki (practical understandings, rules, teleological structures and general understandings) and other categories related to chronic illness self-management skills, bodily movements, daily routines and information-seeking practices. The findings reveal that people with chronic illness value maintaining their existing lifestyles as long as possible and the willingness to seek out illness-related information is related to the severity and duration of the disease. These findings suggest that effective illness-related communication that supports self-management should provide patient...

Books by Kadi Lubi

Research paper thumbnail of Food, Nutrition and the Media

Food, Nutrition and the Media, 2020

Placed at the crossroads of diverse disciplines – medical sciences, information and communication... more Placed at the crossroads of diverse disciplines – medical sciences, information and communication science, sociology of food, agricultural sciences – this book focuses on media, food and nutrition. Contributors to this volume come from different countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Romania, and consider comparatively their native cultures. The book answers several questions: How are food and nutrition made visible and publicized? What is the role of media in relation to food and nutrition? What are the strategies of discourses surrounding food and nutrition within new public spaces?

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnic Identity in Transition: the Potential Impact of Ethnicity on Chronic Illness’ Medication Adherence in Post-Soviet Country

Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 2021

Previously, it has been shown that factors like ethnicity and proficiency of state’s official lan... more Previously, it has been shown that factors like ethnicity and proficiency of state’s official language not only influence self-management abilities and medication adherence but may also indicate the level of trust in physicians, medication, and healthcare system. This research aims to examine the potential impact of ethnicity on medication adherence based on the example of a post-Soviet country. The research was carried out as a quantitative survey among 303 hypertension and type 2 diabetes patients in Estonia, involving participants from ethnic majority and minority. Research was conducted in community pharmacies and data analysed statistically with SPSS. The findings were opposite to previous research. Although members of the ethnic minority used less illness-related sources, these sources relied more on evidence-based medicine compared to the ethnic majority. Because of this, medication adherence was also slightly higher for the ethnic minority compared to the majority. Therefore, these findings indicate trust in medical authorities, their decisions, and recommendations. There was a statistically significant relationship between general and illness-related information-seeking activity; however, medication adherence was not related to information-seeking activity. The research outlines that in addition to ethnolinguistic aspect, also potential cultural influence might determine the trust in medicine and medication adherence.

Research paper thumbnail of Practice theoretical approach on the reasons why target group women refrain from taking breast cancer screening

Patient Education and Counseling, 2021

Objective Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Despite the availability of effective... more Objective
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Despite the availability of effective breast cancer screening programmes, there are only six countries in the European Union reaching the recommended target rate of 70% screened. In addition to the individual reasons for refraining from breast cancer screening, this research aims to follow earlier suggestions to use a practice theoretical approach.

Methods
The study sites were Estonia and Latvia, where 9 and 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted, respectively. Convenience and snowball sampling methods were used. The research was approved by ethics committees in both countries. The interviews passed textual analysis and coding.

Results
The findings revealed that there are three major types of reasons – habitual, practical, and emotional – that influence the formation of the final decision to participate in breast cancer screening.

Conclusion
The implementation of an individualistic approach is not sufficient to bring along desired health behaviour. All groups of reasons, individual and societal context are involved in the decision formation. Thus, structurally provided approaches and messages should be re-conceptualised and re-designed accordingly.

Practice implications
Future screening related campaigns and public health education should address the concerns derived from different types of reasons for refraining from screening.

Research paper thumbnail of THE CHALLENGES OF COVID-19: Global Health and Inequality.

ESA RN16 NewsLetter Special Issue 11, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold across the world its unequal impact quickly became apparent. R... more As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold across the world its unequal impact quickly became apparent. Regrettably the pandemic has underscored what is already known from over a century of research on health inequalities: those who suffer social, economic and political disadvantage, such as the elderly, the socially deprived, and some ethnic minorities are being disproportionally infected and eventually are dying from the disease. While debate on the origins of COVID-19 and the question of whether a pandemic could have been prevented will rage for some time, it is obvious right now that so many cases of infection culminating in death are associated with trenchant inequalities across Europe (and beyond) and could have been prevented. While many political and social media pundits predict the dawn of a new, more politically and socially responsible social order, the long history of health inequality suggests that this is wishful thinking at best.

Research paper thumbnail of "There is no need to tell me too much": chronically ill patients'strategies of controlling information inflow

International Journal of Communication and Health, 2013

Chronic disease patients' satisfaction with information and activity of information seeking behav... more Chronic disease patients' satisfaction with information and activity of information seeking behavior are connected with subjective well-being and successful adaptation with the disease. However, it is mainly the aspect of the content of information that has been discussed, whereas delivery time and amount of information have received very little attention. The present article discusses how and why patients try to control the inflow of disease-related information and how to maintain patient's active participation in their disease-related communication process.The empirical analysis is based on the patients' own descriptions of their information needs and "non-needs" that became evident in the qualitative text analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with Parkinson's disease patients in Estonia. Our study reveals that patients want information to be accessible and in an amount that suits their contextually raised needs.

Research paper thumbnail of Patients’ interpretations of CAM-related information: Manoeuvring between patient and consumer positionings

Patients’ health-related information reception and interpretation strategies have been analysed m... more Patients’ health-related information reception and interpretation strategies have been analysed mainly from the functional (i.e. comprehension) and psychological points of view (i.e. adaptation to disease-related physical and social problems). Analysing patients’ reception and interpretation strategies within a power context is relatively rare. This study examines chronically ill peoples’ reception and communication regarding the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
This study looks through the prism of CAM-related (auto)communication at how chronically ill people manage to live with their illnesses, the related social structural prescriptions and relations with the specific needs of their illnesses and, vice versa, the relations of their illnesses to the surrounding social structure.
CAM use is associated with several general concepts connected with the medical system and social development, such as medicalization, mediatization, the risk society (and individualization), and the shift in power relations within the medical system. On the one hand, the usage of CAM is encouraged by the extensive spread of health-related mass media content, products and services, late modern scepticism about the effectiveness of science and technology, and the commodification of medical expertise. On the other hand, CAM is somewhat discouraged by the actors in the medical system and is sometimes regarded as dangerous practice. Thus patients who want to use alternative treatments have to take care to avoid coming into conflict with the applicable rules and regulations and figure out how to achieve better subjective well-being using available resources. Thus the analysis of CAM-related communication practices also reveals new aspects of patient agency. The agency is independently maintained by dynamic manoeuvring between medical and economic fields and relevant information environments. The question of what kind of support might be needed to avoid harmful health effects and an increase in health-related social inequalities requires further attention in related policy planning.

Research paper thumbnail of The adaptation of everyday practices in the adoption of chronic illness

Health (London, England : 1997), 2017

This article uses social practice theory to examine the role of information-seeking in the mainte... more This article uses social practice theory to examine the role of information-seeking in the maintenance of existing lifestyle and illness-related adjustments in the context of chronic illnesses. The research findings are derived from a thematic analysis of 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Estonian Parkinson's disease patients. The coding scheme bases on the four practice elements outlined by Schatzki (practical understandings, rules, teleological structures and general understandings) and other categories related to chronic illness self-management skills, bodily movements, daily routines and information-seeking practices. The findings reveal that people with chronic illness value maintaining their existing lifestyles as long as possible and the willingness to seek out illness-related information is related to the severity and duration of the disease. These findings suggest that effective illness-related communication that supports self-management should provide patient...

Research paper thumbnail of Food, Nutrition and the Media

Food, Nutrition and the Media, 2020

Placed at the crossroads of diverse disciplines – medical sciences, information and communication... more Placed at the crossroads of diverse disciplines – medical sciences, information and communication science, sociology of food, agricultural sciences – this book focuses on media, food and nutrition. Contributors to this volume come from different countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Romania, and consider comparatively their native cultures. The book answers several questions: How are food and nutrition made visible and publicized? What is the role of media in relation to food and nutrition? What are the strategies of discourses surrounding food and nutrition within new public spaces?