Athlete healthcare behaviour: an ethnographer's methodological conundrum (original) (raw)

Behind every consumer's decision about utilizing health care products and services are their perception of health and illness (Hughner, 2008). Such lay understanding affect consumers' health behaviour and health outcomes (Moorman & Matulich, 1993); it also determines the choice and efficacy of conventional versus complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) products and services (Hughner, 2008). This paper examines these choices amongst a group of competitive athletes, specifically swimmers Competitive athletes operate in a unique social environment that may result in a culture that is different from the general population. As such this may influence the athletes' beliefs, motivations and impact on their health-seeking behaviour regardless of whether they are seeking help for an existing problem, for the prevention of problems, or for performance enhancement in their sport. seriously helpful in addressing the complex way in which drug use begins, is sustained, or stops (Backhouse et al., 2007).There is even less understanding of motivation for CAM use in athletes. It is this aspect of athletes CAM choices that is the focus of this paper. Any attempt to understand why competitive athletes seek CAM thus presents unique challenges to the researcher: it requires an understanding of health-seeking behaviour in the general community; the cultural norms of competitive athletes as a group; the perception of CAM and doping in the athlete community; the background knowledge of conventional medicine and CAM. There is also a need for the researcher to have a strong rapport with the informants and be trusted. As such it lends itself to ethnographic study. The skill set offered by the research team further supports this decision. The primary researcher is an elite athlete, an international swimmer, who is a practicing Doctor of Medicine with qualifications in Sports Medicine. He is supported by a team that includes a practitioner/academic in Chinese medicine; a specialist in politics and sport; and a qualitative researcher.