TY - JOUR
T1 - Living with Long COVID
T2 - A Longitudinal Interview Study of Individuals’ Communicative Resilience Through the “Long Haul”
AU - Thompson, Charee M.
AU - Babu, Sara
AU - Gerlikovski, Emily
AU - McGuire, Maeve
AU - Makos, Shana
AU - Ranallo, Annalisa
AU - Robieson, Isabella
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - It is estimated that there are 65 million people globally–19 million U.S. adults alone–who have long COVID, or persistent symptoms and conditions that continue or develop after an initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Amidst their suffering and the ambiguity surrounding their health, people with long COVID engage processes of reintegrating from disruptions brought upon by their COVID-19 infection and its fallout, as well as the pandemic writ large. This process is communicative resilience (Buzzanell, 2010, 2017, 2019), and the purpose of this study is to document the experiences of people with long COVID as they sensemake, adapt, and transform their lives through communication. We employed longitudinal interviewing during the middle stages of the pandemic (Summer 2021 to Summer 2022), talking to 19 people with long COVID over the course of one year (five interviews each; 89 total interviews). Grounded in the six processes of communicative resilience, findings center the temporal and dialectic nature of resilience, with throughlines of grief, patience, and hope set against a tumultuous sociopolitical backdrop. Findings of this study have implications for how resilience is studied across time; how people learn to live with chronic illnesses; and how to support people living with long COVID and those who provide them care.
AB - It is estimated that there are 65 million people globally–19 million U.S. adults alone–who have long COVID, or persistent symptoms and conditions that continue or develop after an initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Amidst their suffering and the ambiguity surrounding their health, people with long COVID engage processes of reintegrating from disruptions brought upon by their COVID-19 infection and its fallout, as well as the pandemic writ large. This process is communicative resilience (Buzzanell, 2010, 2017, 2019), and the purpose of this study is to document the experiences of people with long COVID as they sensemake, adapt, and transform their lives through communication. We employed longitudinal interviewing during the middle stages of the pandemic (Summer 2021 to Summer 2022), talking to 19 people with long COVID over the course of one year (five interviews each; 89 total interviews). Grounded in the six processes of communicative resilience, findings center the temporal and dialectic nature of resilience, with throughlines of grief, patience, and hope set against a tumultuous sociopolitical backdrop. Findings of this study have implications for how resilience is studied across time; how people learn to live with chronic illnesses; and how to support people living with long COVID and those who provide them care.
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U2 - 10.1080/10410236.2023.2257941
DO - 10.1080/10410236.2023.2257941
M3 - Article
C2 - 37733066
AN - SCOPUS:85171734513
SN - 1041-0236
VL - 39
SP - 2135
EP - 2151
JO - Health communication
JF - Health communication
IS - 10
ER -