Novel insights into abdominal wall hernia (AWH) and its negative impact on patients’ finances: “Doing my job was pretty impossible”

study to date has explored in depth how CAWH shapes patients' employment trajectories, financial security, occupational identity, and perceived role within the family unit.Understanding the experiences of CAWH patients is particularly relevant with respect to Quality of Life, as their significant physical limitations and surgical recovery can disrupt employment, potentially creating cycles of financial and psychological strain.Therefore, this study is the first to qualitatively examine CAWH patients' experience of employment and financial disturbance.This study seeks to address this gap by using a phenomenological methodology to examine how individuals living with CAWH understand and experience the financial and employment-related consequences of their condition.By foregrounding patients' narratives, this work aims to illuminate neglected aspects of disease burden and inform more holistic preoperative counselling, postoperative support, and broader models of care. Methods Study designThis study adopted a phenomenological approach, qualitatively exploring human issues and subjects which can be emotionally laden.This approach suited our research focus and aim, to examine a patient's lived experience of CAWH.Therefore, we used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to examine participants' lived experiences of the financial and employment disturbances CAWH can cause [16].