How do research participants with age-related vision loss talk about their experiences? A secondary discourse analysis of published qualitative extracts

Abstract

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a chronic, progressive eye condition that can affect individuals in later life and lead to loss of central visual function. In this analysis, we aimed to explore the discursive landscape of talk about AMD, drawing on extracts published in peer-reviewed qualitative studies on AMD. Drawing on procedures of qualitative meta-synthesis, we compiled a corpus of raw data extracts from 25 qualitative studies on AMD published in English, largely carried out in high-income countries. Extracts were analysed to identify dominant discourses and key interpretative repertoires (such as recurring metaphors, tropes and figures of speech). We adopted a Foucauldian discourse analytic approach, to consider the implications of dominant discourses, and their associated subject positions, for the subjective experience of living with AMD. Our analysis identified five distinct ways in which AMD was constructed in research participants' talk about experiences of AMD. They included: AMD as a mysterious affliction, linked to biological ageing; AMD as a total loss of independence; AMD as grievous loss; AMD as a condition to be stoically accepted; and – to a more limited extent – AMD as an opportunity for discovery. Drawing on theory from critical disability studies and gerontology, we suggest that the constructions identified are underpinned by broader societal discourses which construct ageing and disability in largely negative, medicalised and individualistic terms. Taking up subject positions within such discourses may compound feelings of isolation, hopelessness and powerlessness. We suggest there may be value in exploring talk about experiences of living with AMD within a broader range of everyday social, relational and environmental contexts.