General Discussion 213 8 disease related context. The results of Chapter 4 showed that most participants did not evaluate gender as strongly salient towards their illness experiences. However, when prompted, several participants described stereotypical views about gender as related to the visibility of PD, coping with emotional experiences, help seeking behaviours, social role patterns and physical appearances. Future research could, for example, further unravel the social structures behind these stereotypical views, whether there are subgroups of men or women for whom these are more of less impactful in coping with PD and under which circumstances they might affect access to PD care. Based on the typology of ‘doing gender’ developed by Nentwhich, studying ‘doing gender’ in a medical context can focus on several themes.14 An adapted overview of guiding questions for gender-sensitive medical research using qualitative designs is presented in Table 1. Design-based study design In Chapter 6 I used a design-based approach to further investigate the impact of gender norms and stereotypes on illness experiences of men and women with PD and to co-develop focal points of gender-sensitive PD care from patients’ perspectives. As described in Chapter 5, design-based research approaches centre implementation as an outcome and allows researchers to create and test interventions in real-world settings while simultaneously collecting and analysing multimethod data in a rigorous and systematic manner. In social medical studies, such as gender medicine studies, they are particularly useful because they allow researchers to address and explore complex sociocultural factors that influence health by actively engaging target populations throughout the design process. The participatory approach facilitates a better understanding regarding the perspectives, needs and experiences of people with different gender identities who are affected by PD or other health conditions. Furthermore, it helps to build trust and facilitate the uptake and implementation of interventions in real-world settings. Design-based research approaches are also well-suited to address issues of equity and inequality by explicitly considering the needs and experiences of marginalized or underrepresented groups. Although the study in Chapter 6 only included the first ‘understanding’ and ‘ideation’ cycles of the design process, future studies can build on these outcomes for the development of targeted gender-sensitive interventions of PD care.
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