Lived Experiences of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis survivors - An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Abstract

In this inquiry I attempt to explore the lived experiences of drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) survivors reflecting upon what they went through while undergoing treatment. I employ Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method owing to its hermeneutic inclination with four drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) survivors, conducting one-on-one in-depth interviews multiple times capturing their narratives. I specifically find Giorgi’s method of creating smaller meaning units from the transcribed data appealing and appropriate in reducing the data and to let themes emerge from them. Three major themes emerged out of combining the smaller meaning units, namely, “why me?”, “to involve or not”, and “incomprehensible future”. I reflect upon these co-created narratives and attempt to explicate the rich descriptions of the lived experiences of the participants in first-person narrative.

Acknowledgments

My research supervisor and I would like to thank all the four participants for recalling and sharing their experiences which would have otherwise been inaccessible.

Notes

1 NTEP was formerly known as Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP).