Health experiences from real people. Health Experience Insights (HEXI) is a website presenting analysed collections of interviews from health research studies. Thousands of people have shared their stories to help others see, hear or read what it’s like to have a health condition such as bowel cancer or depression. Find the list of health conditions through our categories or A-Z menu.
You can hear from people in this section who have had many different and sometimes confusing symptoms. People who know what it is really like to have Long Covid –they talk about difficulties and things that have helped.
Our researchers have also covered family experiences of Long Covid.
Find out about the experience of people with urogynaecological conditions, such as pelvic organ prolapse, urinary incontinence, bladder function problems, bladder pain, and problems with urinary tract infections. Hear what people said about: symptoms; tests and examinations, the impacts on emotional wellbeing, quality of life, and relationships.
Find out about the experiences of people who have been affected by scalds or burn injuries.
Some of the people we interviewed had been burnt when they were children and others were burnt as an adult.
Testimonials
“I really liked being able to see other women going through similar things and talking about their experiences because I think that’s really powerful and a real comfort to people experiencing quite debilitating symptoms to realise there are a lot of women out there doing the same thing.”
Evaluation participant
“It was good to hear other people’s experiences – it made me realise my experiences were ‘normal’.”
Site user
"The human experiences element – the fact that there are real people with real stories made a big difference."
Site user
"The information I got was from other people who’d been through it – simple things like what to take into hospital. … take a bag to carry your drains around, take pyjamas that open up at the front."
Breast cancer patient
"Learning improves with health experience videos: Research by Snow et al (2016)* showed that learners’ knowledge retention, confidence and exam results were much improved when our patient experience videos were included in their learning."
Research Findings
