RESUMEN

Gastrointestinal (GI) infections exert a significant public health burden in the United Kingdom and the numbers of episodes are increasing. Younger children are considered particularly vulnerable to infection, and can experience 2-3 GI infections episodes per year, with consequences being more severe for more disadvantaged children, who are much more likely to be admitted to hospital. Few qualitative studies have explored the lived experience of GI infection in the community in the UK. The aim of the study reported here was to contribute to addressing this evidence gap, by examining the consequences of GI infection for 'normal' family life. Eighteen mothers with young children who had recently experienced a gastrointestinal infection were recruited from two socioeconomically contrasting neighbourhoods in North West of England. The findings demonstrated that GI infections were particularly disruptive: experienced as disgusting, laborious and stressful and significantly impacted normal family routines. Women felt burdened by the heavy physical and emotional demands of caring for a GI infection, resulting in feelings of isolation and insufficient support in their caring role from male partners. Tensions also arose from interactions with external community organisations, particularly in complying with their regulations on infection which often undermined caregivers knowledge and expertise of what was best for their children. This study challenges assumptions that managing GI infections in the home is unproblematic and experienced by caregivers as a 'minor ailment.' Infection control measures need to incorporate insights gleaned from the day-to-day realities of caring for sick children in the community.

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RESUMEN

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a significant public health issue showing persistent geographical health inequalities. However, little attention has focussed on lay perspectives of how contrasting social contexts influence lifestyles and health behaviour in relation to CHD. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore lay perspectives of lifestyle and behaviour in socioeconomically contrasting places, with women and men who had survived a heart attack in Fife, Scotland. This study contributes to knowledge on CHD health inequalities and health promotion, particularly cardiac rehabilitation, emphasising the importance of situating experiences and understandings of health, geographically.

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People with a learning disability in the UK are increasingly choosing to spend their time on 'care farms' but there is limited research examining these spaces from their perspective. A qualitative research design was used to ask eighteen of these clients how care farms contributed to their health and wellbeing. For these participants care farms can be understood, using Fleuret and Atkinson's (2007) framework, as a 'space of wellbeing' and as a positive and life-enhancing space. Positive language was used by participants to describe the farms contrasting with ne gative language describing other spaces and activities. Farms were identified as contributing positively to mental and social wellbeing.

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Emotions are increasingly being recognised and integrated into human geography and it has been highlighted that focusing on the 'interrelatedness' of the research process is crucial. By contextualising fieldwork within the life course of the researcher, greater acknowledgement of the 'emotional labour' involved in fieldwork can be highlighted. The author reflects on the 'emotional geographies' of conducting PhD research into significant health issues with participants who had recently suffered a heart attack in Fife, Scotland. This paper reveals emotions involved in this kind of research, drawing on perspectives from participants as well as the researcher. The author also draws attention to, and reflects on, the lack of engagement with researcher's emotional labour within formal academic structures, such as research training and ethics application processes. Reflecting on fieldwork experiences from a distance, the author discusses the influence and impact of her emotional experiences of fieldwork. This paper contributes to work concerned with emotions and fieldwork in geography and asserts that greater importance and value needs to be given to this type of emotion work as embedded and situated within researchers' life courses.