Examining how the public undertake self-directed research to understand overdiagnosis

***Background*** It is important to communicate about overdiagnosis to the public. Public health messaging is a vital part of this. However, modern healthcare consumers increasingly rely on doing their own research to understand healthcare topics, using a variety of sources and techniques to form health beliefs and to make healthcare decisions. Therefore, a crucial aspect of understanding how to communicate about overdiagnosis is understanding how consumers will make sense of overdiagnosis using self-directed means, such as Googling it or discussing it with their networks. Examining how the public makes sense of overdiagnosis using self-directed means will have several benefits. It will allow us to understand the information pathways that consumers follow to understand this health problems, which can then be targeted in healthcare interventions. It will help identify and address their misconceptions about overdiagnosis, and it will facilitate the development of better resources about overdiagnosis for the public. ***The project*** This project will examine how consumers make sense of overdiagnosis through self-directed means. You will design a research project in which members of the public will be asked to learn about overdiagnosis. You will systematically assess their knowledge about overdiagnosis and attitudes to overdiagnosis before and after the task, as well as examining what processes they followed to learn about overdiagnosis during the task. There are several potential research methods that could be used to complete this task, including qualitative methods, observational research and survey approaches. As well as complete your thesis, you will have the opportunity to transform your work into a peer-reviewed publication, to contribute evidence to expert discourse about public understanding of overdiagnosis. You will receive mentorship from an experienced research team. We will guide you in learning more about research, including obtaining research ethics approval, data collection techniques, data management and analysis. You will improve your writing and develop project management skills. We are a small group within a large network. We work closely together, and our research centre has excellent opportunities for networking and further development for motivated students. ***About you*** You are interested in how the public understand healthcare choices, particularly overdiagnosis. You can come from a clinical or a non-clinical field, but you have some understanding of the social determinants of health. You are interested in learning relevant research methods, such as qualitative research or participant observation. There is some flexibility in the project to tailor the research to healthcare topics and research approaches that you are interested in. ***About us*** I am an interdisciplinary researcher, applying ideas from sociology, public health and social psychology to examine public understanding of health and healthcare. We are based at an interdisciplinary research centre, and our team includes researchers from rheumatology, implementation science, allied health, health sustainability, evidence appraisal, biostatistics and clinical epidemiology. Our group includes some of the leading experts in the fields of overdiagnosis and medical overuse.