The presence of urban rats in the neighbourhood environment may negatively impact the physical and mental health of residents. Our study sought to describe the experiences with, perceptions of, and feelings towards rats and rat control efforts among a group of disadvantaged urban residents in Vancouver, Canada. Semi-structured interviews were held with 20 members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) recruited by VANDU staff. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants reported daily sightings of rats and close contact during encounters. Participants generally disliked encountering rats, raising issues of health and safety for themselves and the community due to the belief that rats carry disease. Fear of rats was common, and in some cases resulted in avoidance of rats. Effects of rats on participants were particularly pronounced for those living with rats in the home or for homeless participants who described impacts on sleep due to the sounds made by rats. Although rats were viewed as more problematic in their neighbourhood than elsewhere in Vancouver, participants believed there to be a lack of neighbourhood-level control initiatives that angered and disheartened participants. In combination with other community-level concerns (e.g., housing quality and availability), the presence of rats was viewed by some to align with a general disregard for the community and its residents. This study suggests that the presence of rats in urban centres may have several consequences on the physical and mental health of residents living in close contact with them. These effects may be exacerbated with continued contact with rats and when residents perceive a lack of initiative to control rats in their neighbourhood. As such, research and policies aimed at mitigating the health risks posed by rats should extend beyond disease-related risk and incorporate diverse health outcomes.

Although there is extensive information about why people participate in clinical trials, studies are largely based on quantitative evidence and typically focus on single conditions. Over the last decade investigations into why people volunteer for health research have become increasingly prominent across diverse research settings, offering variable based explanations of participation patterns driven primarily by recruitment concerns. Therapeutic misconception and altruism have emerged as predominant themes in this literature on motivations to participate in health research. This paper contributes to more recent qualitative approaches to understanding how and why people come to participate in various types of health research. We focus on the experience of participating and the meanings research participation has for people within the context of their lives and their health and illness biographies.

Visual methods offer an innovative approach to qualitative research through their potential to prompt dialogue, enrich verbal and textual data, and enable participants to communicate about difficult topics. However, the use of visual methods requires that researchers rethink methodological aspects of data generation and analysis, especially when working with participant-generated images. Although there are now many analytical frameworks and guidebooks providing instructions on the analysis of textual and visual materials, detailed descriptions of how these elements are brought together are often missing from research reports, precluding novice and other researchers from understanding how findings were attained. Our aim in this article is to describe and illustrate the Textual-Visual Thematic Analysis (TVTA), a framework we developed to collaboratively analyze the conjunction and interaction of textual and visual data in a photo-elicitation study. Given that the ethical and methodological aspects are deeply entwined, we begin the article by contextualizing the data obtained from the photo-elicitation study and then consider confidentiality and approaches to valuing participants' voices. Next, we share the TVTA framework, its procedural implementation, and insights derived from evolving our data analysis approach. We conclude by offering reflections on the limitations and possibilities for future research.

Background: South Asian immigrants in western countries are at a high risk for metabolic syndrome and associated chronic disease. While a physically active lifestyle is crucial in decreasing this risk, physical activity (PA) levels among this group remain low. The objectives of this study were to explore social and cultural factors that influence PA behavior, investigate how immigration process intersects with PA behaviors to influence PA levels and to engage community in a discussion about what can be done to increase PA in the South Asian community. Methods: For this qualitative study, we conducted four Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) among a subset of participants who were part of a larger study. FGD data was coded and analysed using directed content analysis to identify key categories. Results: Participants expressed a range of opinions, attitudes and beliefs about PA. Most believed they were sufficiently active. Women talked about restrictive social and cultural norms that discouraged uptake of exercise. Post-immigration levels of PA were low due to change in type of work and added responsibilities. Conclusion: Health promoters need to consider social, cultural, and structural contexts when exploring possible behavior change interventions for South Asian immigrants.

Background: There is strong evidence supporting the personal and professional benefits for medical students of exposure to art. There is limited information on art-making in relation to medical education. Methods: We explored art-making within medical education by analysing 76 artist statements submitted with visual artwork by students, residents and practitioners to the 2010 and 2011 White Coat Warm Art exhibitions. We analysed the data using grounded theory strategies to identify how medical students and practitioners describe their engagement in artistic creation and how it impacts their personal and professional lives. Results: Our analysis yielded eight themes that illustrated instrumental, humanistic and advocacy-oriented implications of art-making: enhancing learning, escaping constraints, balancing life and work, surviving, expressing self-identity and discovering professional identity, bearing witness, healing self and others, and advocating change. Conclusions: Art-making can play a valuable role in medical education by providing a means of making sense of, and learning foundational information and concepts in medicine. Creative expression through artistic means also provides learners and practitioners a means of exploring their emerging sense of professional identity and clarifying their value commitments. In addition, the experience of art-making fosters well-being, empathy and commitment towards a better future for medicine.