Situated generosity in clinical care: A mixed-methods study of STI services in China
GIST
by Ke Zhou, Dorian Ho, Suzanne Day, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Katherine T. Li, Takhona Grace Hlatshwako, Danyang Luo, Zhuoheng Yin, Gifty Marley, Ligang Yang, Weiming Tang, C.
Micha Belden, Joseph D. Tucker, Ruby Congjiang Wang Background Generosity is a critical yet understudied dimension of prosocial behavior in healthcare.
Existing research has focused on individual traits or professional values, with limited attention to how generosity is shaped in everyday clinical contexts. This study examines how healthcare professionals in China understand and enact generosity in sexually transmitted infection (STI) services, and how it is shaped by relational and organizational conditions.
Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 healthcare professionals and a focus group with four participants across five hospitals in Guangdong Province, China. Thematic analysis explored clinicians’ understandings and experiences of generosity.
Crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) examined configurations of relational and organizational conditions associated with reported generous practices. Data were analyzed using NVivo 12 and csQCA 4.0.
Given uniform outcome presence, findings are interpreted as descriptive configurational patterns rather than causal effects.
Clinical Editorial
Summary
PLOS ONE (Medicine) published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 26 Jun 2026.
The item focuses on Situated generosity in clinical care: A mixed-methods study of STI services in China.
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