Dusanee Suwankhong

La Trobe University · School of Public Health and Human Biosciences

Background: The aim of this study was to explore the factors associated with the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL) among post-stroke patients participating in outpatient physical rehabilitation programmes in community hospital in southern Thailand. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 258 patients diagn...

Introduction: Women should have their rights to become mothers regardless of their health conditions. The literature suggests that HIV-positive mothers want to become a mother but encounter many difficulties. However, little is known about the meaning of motherhood among southern Thai women living with HIV. This paper explores the perception of mot...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, university policies and public health measures resulted in university staff facing hazardous work environments and psychological health problems. This cross-sectional study aimed to analyze the association between sociodemographic characteristics, health conditions, work-related health, effort and reward imbalance (ERI...

Background: Breast cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among women worldwide and in Thailand. Objective: To explore perceptions of breast cancer and screening prevention programmes among a group of at-risk women in a multicultural setting in southern Thailand. Methods: Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used for data col...

Background and Study Aim. Overweight status among primary school children is recognized a major public health problem in Thailand. As the rates of overweight is higher than the key performance indicator targeted by the government, it is important for necessary measures and actions to be taken to solve the problem. This study aimed to determine the...

Introduction: Thailand promotes the regular engagement of physical activity (PA) among its older population to gain health benefits. However, the majority of this group does not achieve sufficient levels of PA to meet the minimum guidelines recommended by Thailand's National Health Policy. This study explores how older Thai adults living in rural c...

Background: Breast cancer screening programme is seen as the best practice to detect breast cancer early. However, there are circumstances that can prevent immigrant women from attending screening programmes. Little is known about Thai migrants and the barriers to their seeking breast cancer screening when living in a new homeland. This paper aimed...

Background and objectives: mothers living with HIV are encouraged not to breastfeed as it can transmit HIV to their infants. However, there is little known about how Thai women with HIV perceive and experience their infant feeding practices. This paper explores the breastfeeding experiences among Thai women living with HIV in southern Thailand. M...

The status of the insider and outsider is an important concept for cross-cultural research. Being a cultural insider is recognized as a strength that allows the researcher to take part in the everyday lives of local people and to get closer to the participants. We explore these issues using examples from our own research with Thai people in souther...

Purpose: To discuss social support among women with breast cancer in rural communities in southern Thailand. Design: Qualitative research that allowed researchers to understand the lived experiences of women living with breast cancer and social support. Methods: In-depth interviewing and drawing methods were adopted with 20 women with breast c...

In this article we draw on Bury's theory of biographical disruption to discuss the meanings of, and emotional experiences related to, being diagnosed with breast cancer among southern Thai women. Qualitative methods, including in-depth interviewing and drawing methods, were used to collect data from 20 women with breast cancer. The women perceived...

We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 women living with breast cancer and invited them to take part in a drawing method. In this paper, we discuss the lived experiences and meaning-making of breast cancer among women in southern Thailand. Our data revealed that the diagnosis of breast cancer generated numerous emotional responses. However, after...

Women with breast cancer receive different forms of treatment. Although treatment can save the lives of women, they can result in adverse physical, psychological, and social effects that can impact the women's quality of life. The objective of this study was to describe the experiences of breast cancer treatment among Thai women in southern Thailan...

Breast cancer is an "emotionally debilitating disease" that affects the lives of women of all ages. In this paper, we discuss the lived experience of breast cancer among women in southern Thailand and situate our discussions within the concept of therapeutic landscapes. We adopted a feminist framework as our research methodology and employed qualit...

Thailand is now focusing on forming the sufficient health-care system by using local wisdom and traditional health resources. The use of local resources such as traditional medicine (TM) and traditional healers to share expenses can be cost-effective in increasing good health of the Thai people. Traditional healers have played an important role in...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experience of carrying out an ethnographic research in the real world with six different participant groups from different backgrounds and embodying different expertise in traditional medicine. The paper will discuss why some approaches do not go well with some key informant groups and will demo...

Traditional healers care for people in their own localities at low cost, and their work can increase access to primary care for people in rural areas in particular. In this chapter, we discuss qualitative ethnographic research using participant observation and in-depth interviews that was carried out with 18 traditional healers and 23 customers. Th...

Although modern health care facilities exist in rural areas, Thai people continue to seek help from traditional healers. This paper explores the perceptions and experiences of patients of traditional healers in southern Thailand. An ethnographic method was used comprising participant observation and in-depth interviews with 23 patients of tradition...

Traditional healers ( mor baan ) played an important role in Thai health long before the introduction of Western medicine. Although modern health professional play a key role of health care provider of Thai health care system, traditional healers and their practice still exist in most rural areas of Thailand. In this article, we address the roles a...

Although the cooperation between modern and traditional medicine (TM) is increasingly promoted in health care system of nationwide, there remains many barriers. In this study, we examined the barriers and possible ways of promoting cooperation between traditional healers and modern health system. Ethnographic method including participant observatio...