This empirical project is aimed to analyze the research on the issues of the effects of social networks on getting satisfactory treatment for Lyme disease. The research is based on the results of the sociological survey, and the central aim of this report is the description and comparison of various networks to which people refer in quest of valuable guidelines. Originally, it will be necessary to emphasize that people try to look for some alternative sources of information that can be either reliable or unreliable. At the moment lots of patients pay special attention to the guidelines, given to them not only by medical authorities but also by those individuals with whom patients may have virtually no contacts.
The empirical project, which has been carried out, is aimed at analyzing such issue as the impact of social structure on the treatment of Lyme disease. In particular, the main accent is placed on such questions as how people find information about medication modes, what type of information they are inclined to trust, and how it influences their further actions. It is necessary to describe and compare various networks to which people refer in quest of valuable guidelines.
This research relies on the ideas, expressed by a distinguished sociologist Mark Granovetter. In his article, The Strength of Weak Ties, the scholar explores the relations between various social contracts; he singles out the so-called strong and weak ties (Granovetter, p 1362). The term “weak ties” mostly implies infrequent or accidental social contacts. The fact is that, the types of the contacts that were used can not be clearly classified, whether these were close or distant, or whether they have many overlapping info sources. Grannovetter argues that very often or even in the overwhelming majority of cases, the most precise and important data may be obtained from such weak ties.
Despite the fact that Granovetter primarily investigates the interactions between applicants and employees on the one hand and mediators on the other, it should be emphasized that his hypothesis can be applied to medicine. In this regard, it is of the crucial importance to show how people with Lyme disease find new opportunities or alternative treatment modes that may be more efficient than those ones, prescribed by practitioners.
The summary of Granovetter’s theory explained in “Getting a job” is about the flow of information within social networks as it pertains to job mobility. The study focuses on how the information that facilitates mobility is secured and disseminated. He found that professionals rely primarily on their set of personal contacts to get information about job-change opportunities rather than more formal or impersonal routes.
It is necessary to emphasize that this project is not directed against medical workers, yet it illustrates new tendencies in the public opinion, especially if it is talked about people with Lyme disease. These new tendencies just demonstrate that under some circumstances, patients may be even forced to search for new solutions because traditional ones do not fully suit their demands. The theoretical concept of the work is aimed to support the claim that Lyme decease may be treated by non-medicament curing.
Originally, the paper is aimed to support the theoretical claim by Mark Granovetter which he explained in his paper The Strength of Weak Ties, and which claims that various social contacts may help people attain the mental treatment, which is able to empower the struggle with Lyme decease. The terms of the paper clearly define the diagnostic issues of the problem, and the impact of social contacts of the patients with Lyme decease on the treatment process. Initially, these patients are the main audience for the survey.
In order to conduct this empirical study various research methods can be used. At the very beginning, the preference was given to such technique as unstructured interview. It was planned to ask people about possible ways of sharing information with each other, and more importantly it was essential for the paper to find out these tips had affected their decision-making and whether they had been useful to them. Interview as a sociological research method may be quite effective because it enables the interview to specify some facts; it also helps to assess the attitudes of respondents toward the subject of discussion.
Nonetheless, one has to admit that it has considerable drawbacks. First and foremost, it is very time-consuming and often cannot cover all the aspects of the project (Bulmer, 66). Secondly, it should be mentioned the so-called interviewers effect, which means that the researcher may change the behavior of the subject. Thus, the results collected in this way, may not be valid. Apart from that, a great number of people feel very reluctant to make any statements about such very sensitive matter as Lyme disease. In order to facilitate the process of gathering data, it was decided to employ such quantitative method as statistical survey. However, there is strong necessity to acknowledge that the interviews which had been conducted helped to understand that the research has essential limitations.
First, it is necessary to argue that survey has much higher response rates, secondly, it offer certain degree of privacy, and people are more willing to participate. Moreover, it prevents the researcher from being biased or subjective in his or her analysis of the data. It was aimed to combine various types of questions such as for instance dichotomous (Yes/No), multiple choice and scaling ones. For the more precise results, the numbered replies were used, helping people to represent their attitude in numerical way. This type was scale was necessary for me to measure the degree of satisfaction. The main intention was to be as objective as possible.
Originally, the survey was distributed via e-mail to people with Lyme decease, for the could give their anonymous replies and add to the research of this decease. Moreover, it is necessary to mention that the main part of the survey was aimed to make people voluntarily share their information on the matters of their decease and curing process, consequently, it was necessary not to make an impression of personal life interference. The people should be persuaded that they are sharing information which would help them and other patients with this decease to get healthy. Additionally, the conditions of treatment should also be found out and taken into account.
The measurement of the results was aimed to be held in accordance with the statistical analysis generally applied in the sociological surveys. Originally, the variables are different in these surveys, however, the independent variables, emphasizing the changeability of the initial survey image, are claimed to state the very essence of the sociological contacts on the one hand (in relation with the main idea of the research), and the personal features of the respondents on the other hand, as the contacts of the patients can not be regarded as the only factor. Originally, this is the main reason of choosing these variables.
These variables are aimed to define the matter of the observation, i.e. the social contacts of the patients, the ways the disease was diagnosed, what symptoms were observed who diagnosed the decease and so on. These measurements were selected because of the reason this data is the most required for the basis of the research. Moreover, it will be helpful for the classification of the respondents on the basis of the decease intensiveness and the symptoms which are the brightest.
In order to decrease (or even avoid) bias, the survey was anonymous. Consequently, the measurement was actually worked out on the basis of the proportion of the patients with and without tick and according to the phase of the decease.
First, some questions in the survey were obligatory and without answering them, the respondent could not pass further. As a result, the views and opinions of some people could have not accounted in this research. There is another facet of this problem, occasionally, the responses, given to the items were not quite consistent with one another. For example, some respondents were very ambiguous in their assessment of their medical service provider, and it was not clear whether they had been content with them or not.
There is another aspect that cannot be overlooked. Initially, the survey was mainly intended for those who had been diagnosed and treated of Lyme disease but not finally cured. It was assumed that every person who had ever suffered from this malady would be interested to take part in such survey, but to some extent my presumption was erroneous. This indicates that sometimes medical workers do not consider it necessary to inform their patients and consequently many of them underestimate all the risks.
On the whole, thirty one people were surveyed. All of them were treated of Lyme disease. Fifteen questions were posed to the respondents but there is no necessity to enumerate all of them here. Probably it would be more prudent to summarize the key facts in table format. Namely, we should pay extra attention to such the source of information, the degree of satisfaction with the current treatment mode, the diagnosis. The most vital thing is how people keep learn about new approaches to Lyme disease. The table may take such form
The diagnosis (independent variable).
The Degree of satisfaction with the former treatment mode (dependent variable).
The source of valuable information about new treatment modes. (independent variable).
Total results of the survey and the amount of respondents.
These findings indicate that there are a great number of people who attempt to seek for necessary data not only from medical authorities, practitioners, whom they can contact on a regular basis but from individuals whom they see infrequently or even almost accidentally. Furthermore, it is quite permissible for us to argue that some of them take in consideration not only the words of medical workers who are believed to be the major and most reliable source of information but also from mass media, advertisement, commercial, newspaper articles and so forth. At this point, it is necessary to mention that Granovetter’s theory is quite applicable to Medicare.
These results suggest that the importance of the weak ties cannot be ignored. The most interesting detail is that sometimes, even those channels that are often considered as unreliable can be of great avail the person who seeks medical assistance. This is arguably the most paradoxical feature of the weak ties and we can only agree with Granovetter, who claims that this issue still requires in-depth examination. Besides, these findings indicate that patients have become much more active or even independent in their search of medical services, or probably they are not so firmly convinced that health care authorities can assist them.
Initially it is necessary to stress the idea that the results, obtained in this research must not be viewed as some conclusive evidence, because according to the standards of sociological research, the scholar must study a wider scope of samples. Secondly, this empirical project is not directed against medical workers and it does not promote self-diagnosis or self-treatment. Yet, it indicates that people, who suffer from the Lyme disease, tend to search for some other alternatives and sometimes they avoid consulting medical authorities.
Naturally, one cannot deny the fact that it is them to whom we should turn to in case of emergency but we must not dismiss the opinions of other people, who may have undergone similar hardships. Probably, at this moment, a far-fetched statement is created; however, it seems to me that many citizens of the United States are beginning to lose confidence in Medicare system in our country. The fact that so many of them (approximately 82 percent) pay so much attention to the words of non-specialists or even amateurs is very telling. This hypothesis is not substantiated at the moment but this issue still remains unexplored and can become a subject for future researchers
Therefore, we may arrive at the conclusion that now people try to look for some alternative sources of information that can be either reliable or unreliable. At the moment many patients pay special attention to the guidelines, given to them not only by medical authorities but also by those individuals with whom patients may have virtually no relationships. Secondly, we need to speak about the increasing role of mass media that appears to dominate even in such sphere as medicine. In turn, these new tendencies suggest that the services provided by the health care system are not always perfect. They also imply that we must not ignore the ideas of other people who may not professionals yet they have lived through similar experience that can be extremely useful.
Bibliography
Martin Bulmer. “Sociological Research Methods”. Transaction Publishers, 1999.
Mark S. Granovetter. “The Strength of Weak Ties”. The American Journal of Sociology. (76), 6, pp 1360-1380, 1973.