Health beliefs and illness behaviour Flashcards
What does sociological research explore when examine lay health beliefs?
Beliefs that people draw upon in their understanding and defining of health and is usually referred to as ‘lay perspective research’,
This research focuses on discovering the social rules and cultural meanings that social groups draw upon to order their lives and make sense of their experience of health and illness.
Describe the findings of sociological research when examining the constituents of lay health beliefs
In developing explanations to account for their own health and social circumstances, individuals draw on a variety of knowledge sources.
Disease prevention/health promotion strategies have tended to focus on individual lifestyle issues and lack of public understanding, leading the public to be treated as passive recipients of information and services, rather than active as partners.
Findings of many social studies show that frequently people DO know what affects their health, but they can find it difficult to act on what they know due to their material circumstances
Public conceptions of health and illness vary according to immediate material and social circumstances.
These social and economic circumstances can act to constrain the possibilities for action to change an ‘unhealthy lifestyle’
Explain the relationship between lay health beliefs and patient compliance with clinical treatment
Lay health beliefs describe how patient’s and people have their own informal definition of health that is not necessarily made on the basis of scientific fact. Socioeconomic factors, cultural differences and psychological factors (feelings of shame, fear, stigma) can influence somebody’s lay health beliefs
Our beliefs of health influence what we seek of health and health behaviours are what individuals do to promote and maintain their health status.
For example, 1 trigger identified by zola (1973) was personal interference with work. Somebody may need a knee operation, but find that they cannot take time off work and therefore may refuse the knee operation as they still believe they are healthy as they can work now, but would not be able to work for some time after the operation - I’m not sure if this is a good example of compliance but it’s all I could think of 😭
What did Zola’s (1973) help-seeking behaviour research find?
Peoples responses to symptoms were contingent upon their cultural values and beliefs concerning health - their perception of what is ‘normal’
The decision to seek professional medical help was either promoted or delayed by social factors and 5 key triggers were identified that prompted people to see medical help
Describe the 5 triggers that were identified by Zola’s help-seeking behaviour model
Triggers are the events that may prompt somebody to seek medical help as they threaten someone’s notion of ‘normal’. These 5 triggers are:
- Inter-personal crisis
- Perceived interference with work activities
- Perceived interference with social/leisure activities
- Sanctioning by others who insist help be sought
- Symptoms persist beyond arbitrary time limit set by individual
