Public Engagement with Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), 2006-2007

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This mixed method study investigated public engagement with methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The growing social scientific literature on public engagement with emerging infectious diseases provided the context. Such engagement can range from anxious, alarmist responses, to more distancing reactions in which ‘risk groups’ are invoked and the sense of invulnerability and equanimity of those not belonging to such groups maintained. Sixty adults were purposively sampled from Greater London to encompass relevant age, socio-economic and newspaper readership demographics. The sampling frame also ensured that half of the sample had had at least one overnight stay in a hospital within the 12 months prior to the interview. Data were collected by 60 semi-structured interviews, followed by a written self-completed questionnaire. Initially participants were presented with a grid containing four empty boxes. They were verbally prompted to write in each box any word, emotion or image that came to mind when they heard the term ‘MRSA’. A scanned version of the free association grid completed by every respondent is available to accompany every interview. The interviews are also available in Atlas-ti format, in addition to an RTF file of each transcript. The thematic analysis revealed a shared pattern of response, with few sub-group differences. The key pattern was that MRSA resulted from the dirty state of National Health Service (NHS) hospitals. The role of the hospital had been transgressed: hospitals should cure but, instead, left people (primarily babies, the elderly and ‘the sick’) with a life-threatening condition. Blame for this situation pervaded the data. It was levelled primarily at cleaners, though mismanagement underpinned bad cleaning. Blame was also levelled at those who introduced ‘foreign’ cleaners – and for that matter nurses and doctors – into NHS hospitals. ‘Foreigners’ were seen to play a role in the demise of the NHS, which was seen as a microcosm of Britain. Calls to bring back matron, particularly among the older participants, represented a hope of returning the NHS to an imagined golden age of orderliness, authority and cleanliness. Overall, the invocation of ‘vulnerable’ risk groups left this sample of the general public with a sense of equanimity regarding their own risk, but with a strong sense of blame and worry concerning the general state of the country. Further information about the study can be found on the ESRC award page.Main Topics:The main topics are:public engagement with MRSApublic understanding of emerging infectious diseasesthe interplay between media and lay understandings of emerging infectious diseasesimpact of MRSA on people's reported thoughts, feelings and practices pertaining to hospital attendancehygieneantibiotic usebiomedicine