Name
Not Faking, Not Fine: Chronic Illness Stories from TikTok
Description
Women with chronic illness are often dismissed, misdiagnosed, and experience significant delays in care. Grounded in Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit), this study uses a conceptual content analysis of TikTok videos and comment threads to examine how chronically ill women describe their medical experiences when seeking help, and how they build community on TikTok. In addition to sharing findings, we will offer practical recommendations for improving healthcare practices with chronically ill women.
Speakers
Andrea Trejo PhD, Assistant Professor, East Carolina University,
Lorreine Wanjau MA, Doctoral Student, East Carolina University,
Mahsa Shahinbana, Medical Family Therapy, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
Lorreine Wanjau MA, Doctoral Student, East Carolina University,
Mahsa Shahinbana, Medical Family Therapy, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
Content Level
All Audience
Tags
Complex Patient Care, Medically unexplained symptoms, Social justice or DEI
Session Type
Poster
SIG or Committee
Just Medicine/DEI (JMC)
Objective 1
Gain insight into the medical experiences of chronically ill women on TikTok.
Objective 2
Examine how ableism, cisheteropatriarchy, and power shape healthcare interactions.
Objective 3
Implement practical recommendations for improving healthcare practices with chronically ill women.
Content Reference 1
Iezzoni, L. I., Rao, S. R., Ressalam, J., Bolcic-Jankovic, D., Agaronnik, N. D., Donelan, K., Lagu, T., & Campbell, E. G. (2021). Physicians’ Perceptions Of People With Disability And Their Health Care: Study reports the results of a survey of physicians' perceptions of people with disability. Health Affairs, 40(2), 297-306. https://doi.org/ 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01452
Content Reference 2
Heydarian, N. M., Frankowski, S. D., Lee, M., Oh, K. M., An, K., Shin, C., Hughes, A. S., Kartik, R., & Bogart, K. R. (2025). Validating the revised Attitudes Toward People With Disabilities Scale with health care professionals. Rehabilitation Psychology. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rep0000594
Content Reference 3
Markowitz, D. M. (2022). Gender and ethnicity bias in medicine: A text analysis of 1.8 million critical care records. PNAS nexus, 1(4), pgac157. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac157
Content Reference 4
VanPuymbrouck, L., Friedman, C., & Feldner, H. (2020). Explicit and implicit disability attitudes of healthcare providers. Rehabilitation psychology, 65(2), 101. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000317
Content Reference 5
Bane, S., Falasinnu, T., Espinosa, P. R., & Simard, J. F. (2024). Misdiagnosis, Missed Diagnosis, and Delayed Diagnosis of Lupus: A Qualitative Study of Rheumatologists. Arthritis Care & Research, 76(11), 1566-1573. https://doi.org/ 10.1002/acr.25405