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Creating digital stories to understand living with multimorbidity

There is a rise in the number of people living with more than one long-term health condition, which can have a significant impact on wellbeing and quality of life. In particular, living with multiple long-term health conditions (multimorbidity) can be complex, and often people living with more than one long-term health condition are less active in their daily lives. This can be problematic as being inactive can lead to other health risks and may mean it is more difficult to carry out daily tasks.

Understanding multimorbidity challenges

Often, research is directed toward just one health condition at a time and misses a lot of the complexities associated with living with multiple long-term conditions. We, therefore, want to know more about what it is like to live with multiple long-term conditions and give patients a voice and platform to tell their stories.

The main objective of this project is to create in-depth digital stories as a way of understanding what it is like to live with multiple long-term conditions (also referred to as multimorbidity). Therefore, this project is taking a unique approach and will be combining the art of storytelling with the scientific underpinnings of research.

Community-based participatory research

The research team will be using a digital storytelling approach to understanding being physically active with multiple long-term conditions.

Digital storytelling is a promising method in health promotion research and falls within the category of community-based participatory research. This means that the research team will work with participants to co-create a digital story about their experiences of living with multiple long-term conditions. A digital story is a combination of photos, videos, text, audio and narration. It allows participants to be creative and express themselves through various formats and create a story that is unique to them.

The project is looking to recruit up to 30 participants to take part in a series of digital storytelling workshops. The participants will work closely with the research team over a 4-week period to learn how to create a digital story, with each participant creating their own digital story by the end of the workshops.  For participants to take part in the project, they must be over 18 years old, and living with more than one long-term condition and/or disability. We define 'long-term' as any condition that has been diagnosed and lasted over 12 months. 

The stories will be used to advance knowledge in this area and could potentially guide future research projects by identifying key issues or factors that impact wellbeing and quality of life. These results can be applied to healthcare contexts, as well as community-based programmes to improve physical activity, health and wellbeing.

If you would like to take part in this project or are interested in knowing more about the project, please follow this link to complete the form and one of the research team will contact you shortly: https://tinyurl.com/BrunelResearchInterest
If you would like to take part in this project or are interested in knowing more about the project, please follow this link to complete the form and one of the research team will contact you shortly: https://tinyurl.com/BrunelResearchInterest

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Emily Hunt
Emily Hunt - Emily Hunt joined Brunel University London in January 2019 as a Lecturer in Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences (Psychology). Emily completed her PhD at Loughborough University, completing in July 2021. The focus of Emily's PhD was narrative behaviour change and well-being, specifically exploring the power of stories as a means to promote physical activity for people with arthritis. Most recently, Emily's research has focused on utilising digital storytelling as a means to explore experiences of living with multiple long-term conditions and chronic disease.

Related Research Group(s)

diverse group exercise (1)

Physical Activity in Health and Disease - The centre conducts interdisciplinary research to improve human health and performance through regular physical activity and exercise, and by limiting sedentary behaviour.

people doing yoga

Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifecourse - Inequalities in health and wellbeing in the UK and internationally; welfare, health and wellbeing; ageing studies; health economics.


Partnering with confidence

Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.


Project last modified 02/10/2023