Table 1 Characteristics of studies included
Author | Year | Aim | Country | Setting | Population | Diagnoses and illness duration (ID) | Recruitment | Data collection | Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Malson et al. [37] | 2004 | To analyse participants’ accounts of their in-patient treatment experiences, through explicating the ways in which ‘the eating disordered patient’ is constituted as a subject position or imposition in these accounts | United Kingdom; Australia | IP specialist ward UK; General adolescent ward AUS | Participants n = 39 Age 14–45 years Female (n = 39) | Diagnoses: AN; BN ID = not specified | Medical service admission during time point | SSI during admission & post discharge | DA |
Colton & Pistrang [38] | 2004 | To provide a detailed description of how adolescents experience inpatient treatment for anorexia nervosa | United Kingdom | IP specialist unit; 10 bed milieu setting | Participants n = 19 Age 12–17 to years (M = 15.4 years) Female (n = 19) | Diagnosis: AN ID: M = 23 months (SD 12.4 months) from diagnosis | Medical service admission during time point | Narrative SSI with member checking; post discharge | IPA |
Boughtwood and Halse [39] | 2010 | To identify how teenage girls diagnosed with anorexia construct their illness, treatment programme and relationships with their doctors and nurses | Australia | IP hospital setting (not specified) | Participants n = 25 Age 12–18 years Female (n = 25) | Diagnosis: AN ID = not specified | Voluntary; Invitation to all participants admitted to medical service during specified period | SSI interviews and researcher field notes; During admission (n = 20) & post discharge (n = 5) | Discourse analysis (post-structural theory framework) |
Long et al. [40] | 2011 | To investigate in-patient perceptions of mealtimes on eating disorders units | United Kingdom | IP eating disorder unit × 3; independent eating disorder service × 1 | Participants n = 12 Age M = 22 years (SD 3.74 years) Female (n = 12) | Diagnosis: AN ID = not specified | Invitation sent post discharge to all participants admitted to medical service during specified period | Interview, open ended questions following: "tell me about your experiences of mealtimes as an in-patient"; Post discharge | TA |
Eli [41] | 2014 | T0 identify the ways in which inpatient ambivalence might be embedded in the special social institutional setting that an eating disorders ward presents, beyond patient-specific motivation for recovery | Israel | IP specialist ward | Participants n = 13 Age 18–38 years Female (n = 12) Male (n = 1) | Diagnosis: AN = 12; BN = 1 ID = not specified | Multiple sources: outpatient eating disorders clinic; online pro-recovery eating disorders forum; eating disorders advocacy organization, and; chain-referral/snowball sampling | SSI (narrative focus) following discharge | IPA (contextual framework) |
Kezelman et al. [42] | 2016 | To provide a detailed qualitative analysis of an individual’s psychological experience across the course of an inpatient treatment implementing rapid-refeeding protocol | Australia | IP specialist adolescent medical | Participants n = 10 Age = 17–19 years Female (n = 10) | Diagnosis: AN ID: M = 10.1 months (SD 11.7 months) from diagnosis | Invitation to all participants admitted to medical service during specified period | 3 × weekly SSI during admission | Thematic analysis |
Smith et al. [43] | 2016 | To explore experiences of women undergoing specialist inpatient treatment for anorexia nervosa | Scotland | IP specialist unit | Participants n = 21 Age 18–41 years Female (n = 21) | Diagnosis: AN ID: M = 76.1 months (SD = 86.3 months) subjective report | Voluntary; Invitation to all participants admitted to medical service during specified period | SSI at or following discharge | TA (Inductive; realist approach) |
Thabrew et al. [44] | 2020 | To: (i) Understand the experiences of young people with anorexia admitted to hospital for briefer stays; and (ii) inform the design of contemporary inpatient treatment to better suit their needs | New Zealand | IP tertiary specialist eating disorder service | Participants n = 9 Age 15–17 years Female (n = 8) Male (n = 1) | Diagnosis: AN ID = 1–24 months from diagnosis | Invitation to all participants admitted to medical service during specified period | SSI post discharge | TA |
Solhaug and Alsaker [45] | 2021 | To explore patient lived experience of inpatient/hospital treatment | Norway | IP specialist unit | Participants n = 3 Age 18–30 years Female (n = 2) Male (n = 1) | Diagnosis: AN ID = not specified | Voluntary; Invitation to all participants admitted to medical service during specified period | Patient diaries (responses to open ended questions) during treatment | Thematic interpretative analysis |
MacDonald et al. [46] | 2023 | Living and leaving a life of coercion: a qualitative interview study of patients with anorexia nervosa and multiple involuntary treatment events | Denmark | Multiple IP specialist settings | Participants n = 7 Age 20–40 years Female (n = 7) | Diagnosis: AN ID = not specified. All participants had > 5 inpatient admissions | Purposeful sampling through flyers and social media, shared by/displayed at specialised treatment facilities and national eating disorder organization | SSI post discharge | Reflexive TA |
O’Connell [47] | 2023 | Being and doing anorexia nervosa: An autoethnography of diagnostic identity and performance of illness | United Kingdom | IP adult specialist unit | Participants n = 1 Age not specified Female (n = 1) | Diagnosis: AN ID = not specified but study relating to four hospital admissions | n/a | Personal diaries and medical documents including community and hospital clinical records relating to four long term (4–8 month) inpatient admissions | Autoethnography |