BSS Flashcards
Lay Definitions of Health
Absence of disease
What is health behaviour?
‘behaviour patterns, actions, & habits that relate to health maintenance, health restoration and to health improvement’
What are the types of Health Behaviour?
- Preventative
- Illness / ‘sick-role’
What is preventative behaviour?
To prevent or detect disease
What kinds of preventative behaviour?
SELF-DIRECTED (e.g. drinking water, exercise, healthy diet)
PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE (e.g. getting vaccinated, screening attendance, using condoms)
What is ‘sick-role’ behaviour?
Defining ill health, finding remedies and getting well
What types of ‘sick-role behaviour’ are there?
SELF CARE (e.g. OTC medicines, self-help, coping strategies)
HELP/TREATMENT SEEKING & COMPLIANCE (e.g. talking to friends/family, seeking medical advice, therapy)
Why do we examine health behaviour?
significant proportion of morbidity and mortality can be attributed to health behaviours
How do we modify health behaviour?
Understanding behaviour - what influences, how we can change it
How can we begin to understand the causes of behaviour?
psychological approaches - e.g. social cognition models
(help understand, predict, and change health behaviour)
What is the primary determinant of behaviour?
COGNITIVE VARIABLES/COGNITIONS (attitudes & beliefs)
What are cognitive variables?
primarily focused on motivational factors
- perception of RISK of developing health condition
- perceived EFFECTIVENESS of behaviour achieving health goal
behaviour is viewed as rational & product of subjective cost-benefit analysis
What is the ‘Health Belief Model’?
Aimed to establish a systematic method to explain and predict preventative health behaviour
Adapted to many cultures & health behaviour, evidence based - explains variance in health behaviours
What is perceived severity?
How bad is this health outcome for me?
(how treatable is it, knowing people who have survived/died)
What is perceived susceptibility?
How am I at risk of this health outcome or issue?
Family history, friends w cancer, leading a healthy life
What is perceived threat?
Joining together perceived susceptibility and perceived severity?
What are perceived benefits?
physical health, psychological health, social benefits
What are perceived barriers?
cost, social impact, practical barriers
(e.g. difficulty getting screenings, fear of having x condition)
What is the belief in effectiveness of health behaviour?
perceived benefits + perceived barriers
What is self-efficacy?
Individuals need to believe they are capable of and have control over performing the behaviour that will reduce the threat to their health?
What are the limitations of the Health Belief Model?
emphasis on individualism and rational decision making ignores influence of other factors (social, economic, emotional)
does NOT take into account habitual/non-health related reasons for behaviour (social acceptability)
constructs are unobservable - hard to measure
What is Illness Behaviour?
‘the manner in which individuals MONITOR their bodies, DEFINE & INTERPRET their symptoms, take remedial action, utilise sources of help as well as the formal health care system’
going to see a doctor is process
What are the stages of illness behaviour?
- Symptom Interpretation (interpretation/denial)
- Coping (accommodation/self-management)
- Help-seeking decision-making (procrastination/’shopping’ between help sources)
(cycle)
What is a lay diagnosis of symptom experience?
‘The act of bringing meaning to a bodily change through a process of interpretation and evaluation?’
Thinking about if symptoms are normal or not, an illness or not, or serious enough for treatment
How do we normalise/rationalise symptom experience?
Seeking alternative innocuous/benign explanations, often linked to lifestyle factors or age.
May accept something is WRONG, but will offer a logical ‘non-threatening’ explanation
Help-seeking does NOT occur
How do we accommodate cancer symptoms?
Coping, denial
What are structural explanations for not help-seeking?
ACCESS barriers: time, cost, cultural sensitivity, lower classes, social structure
Competing social roles
Social Values: e.g. stoicism, ‘traditional masculinity’
What are cultural knowledge explanations?
Social Construct of Illness
Nature of Symptoms (visibility, recognisability, frequency)
Lay theories
What are lay theories?
What is ‘real’ illness?
Ideas about cause, course and prognosis
Stereotypes about ‘at risk’ groups
Beliefs about treatment
What is lay epidemiology?
‘The processes through which health risks are understood and interpreted by lay (non-professional) people’
What are key aspects of lay epidemiology?
Lived-experience, family history
Media, celebrities
Empirical evidence/health promotion messages
Modification by social norms and values
What are social barriers to the ‘meaning’ of being ill?
The social meanings of being ill, seeking help and becoming a patient
- illness is a moral category
- some diagnoses carry social meaning
- becoming a patient can impact on our identity
- help seeking is negotiated as an act of identity management