Reconstructing the Secondary Health Conditions of Persons with Disabilities: Illness Narrative Analysis

Abstract

The primary focus of this study is ‘secondary health conditions’ among individuals with disabilities, characterized by their occurrence several years after the onset of the primary disability. While the conceptualization of these secondary health conditions acknowledges the significance of disability and the passage of time, the discourse predominantly addresses the association with impairment, omitting considerations of environmental constraints and subsequent personal and social changes post-illness. Consequently, the research aims to reconstruct the experiences of secondary health conditions within the illness narrative framework proposed by Bury (2001), drawing insights from the narratives of nine individuals with disabilities. First, the main cause of the secondary health conditions reconstructed by the participants was the stress of disability discrimination, and the timing of discovery and diagnosis was delayed due to the combination of each life history reason and the medical staff's incomprehension of disability. After the onset of secondary health conditions, the participants reconstructed and recovered their daily lives with public support and support from the disability network. In this process, participants developed an awareness that individuals’ health problems are a social concern and attempted to turn the changes they had experienced into social changes. The study concludes by suggesting that medical staff should actively listen to the narratives of patients with disabilities and implement targeted health education and health literacy initiatives for individuals with disabilities.