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Open Access 01-12-2024 | COVID-19 | Research

Making sense of COVID-19: manifestations of health capital during the pandemic

Authors: Ş.Erhan Bağcı, Şengül Erden, Begüm Yengel

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2024

Abstract

Background

Grounded in Bourdieu's theory of human practice, this study aims to examine how individuals as social agents made sense of and acted upon their COVID-19 experiences. A recent conceptualization of health capital is utilized to explain the practices of patients in the pandemic, in relation to their biographical background.

Methods

This is a qualitative research in which the data were collected by biographical narrative interviews through a theoretical sampling approach. Eighteen interviews with COVID-19 patients were conducted and 8 of them were analyzed by the Documentary Method.

Results

The informants made sense of their illness experiences through their health capital, which is manifested in their self-perception of health, their attitudes towards the healthcare system, their conception of terms such as luck, their work status, and the gendered division of labour at home in the COVID-19 pandemic. All the manifestations are mediated by the social, cultural, and economic capital of the informants, and their habitual practices are based on their symbolic capital.

Conclusion

The study depicts how social agents’ health capital manifested in the pandemic, relying on their symbolic capital, and shaping their practices. Further research across diverse contexts is needed to fully understand extra dimensions of health capital as a descriptor of the social determinants of health.

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Title: Making sense of COVID-19: manifestations of health capital during the pandemic
Authors: Ş.Erhan Bağcı
Şengül Erden
Begüm Yengel
Publication date: 01-12-2024
Publisher: BioMed Central
Keyword: COVID-19
Published in: BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2024
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18451-8

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Making sense of COVID-19: manifestations of health capital during the pandemic

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

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