Weekly Diaries on Social Impact of 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease Epidemic

2001-2003 weekly free-text diaries from a panel of 54 respondents in North Cumbria document the health and social consequences of the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak. The dataset contains 3,200 diary entries over 18 months, supplemented by in-depth interviews and focus groups. The research was conducted by Maggie Mort to understand the disaster's human impact and recovery process.

Use Cases

• Analyze sentiment and thematic evolution in weekly free-text diaries to model community trauma and recovery timelines.
• Identify occupation-specific stressors by correlating diary entries from farmers, tourism workers, and health professionals.
• Study the longitudinal effects of a disaster by tracking individual narratives across the 18-month diary period.
• Compare perspectives from in-depth interviews with the weekly diary content to understand public versus private reflections.

Strengths

• 3,200 weekly diary entries provide dense qualitative data.
• Data collection over 18 months captures longitudinal effects.
• Panel of 54 respondents represents diverse rural occupations.

Limitations

• Small sample size of 54 respondents limits statistical generalizability.
• Geographic focus on North Cumbria may not represent other affected regions.
• Qualitative text data requires significant preprocessing for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Maggie Mort, Lancaster University project.

Collection Method

Standing citizen panel recruited to produce weekly free-text diaries, supplemented by in-depth interviews and focus groups.

Time Range

2001-2003

Geography

North Cumbria, United Kingdom.