Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Discourse analysis: A useful methodology for health‑care system researches

Authors

. Ahmadreza Yazdannik
. Alireza Yousefy 1
. Sepideh Mohammadi 2

1 Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan,

2 Department of Nursing and Midwifery Ramsar, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Ramsar, I.R Iran

Abstract
Discourse analysis (DA) is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry and becoming an increasingly popular
research strategy for researchers in various disciplines which has been little employed by health‑care
researchers. The methodology involves a focus on the sociocultural and political context in which
text and talk occur. DA adds a linguistic approach to an understanding of the relationship between
language and ideology, exploring the way in which theories of reality and relations of power are
encoded in such aspects as the syntax, style, and rhetorical devices used in texts. DA is a useful and
productive qualitative methodology but has been underutilized within health‑care system research.
Without a clear understanding of discourse theory and DA it is difficult to comprehend important
research findings and impossible to use DA as a research strategy. To redress this deficiency, in
this article, represents an introduction to concepts of discourse and DA, DA history, Philosophical
background, DA types and analysis strategy. Finally, we discuss how affect to the ideological
dimension of such phenomena discourse in health‑care system, health beliefs and intra‑disciplinary
relationship in health‑care system.

Keywords

Discourse analysis
health‑care system
methodology
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 7, Issue 6
December 2017
Pages 1-7

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