Health & Illness Flashcards
Illness behaviour
Active process that involves interpreting symptoms, evaluating possible responses, and finally, deciding whether to try and those symptoms or simply ignore them
The sick role
Behaviour deemed appropriate of those who are ill - reliance on others and deviation from normal role
4 components of the sick role
Exemption - able to gain exemption from normal role
Not responsible - not held responsible for their illness and can’t be expected to recover by an act of will
Temporary - patient should recognise that sick role is only temporary and they must want to leave it
Co-operation - must cooperate with competent health professionals
Dr and the sick role
Expected to: apply a high degree of knowledge and skill to illness, act for welfare of patient rather than self, be objective, be guided by rules of professional practice
Rights: right to examine patient physically and enquire into their life, granted considerable autonomy in professional practice, occupy a position of authority in relation to patient
Pharmacist and the sick role
Provides a means to leave the sick role by giving advice, otc meds, and referring to other hc professionals
Criticisms of the sick role
Implies that it is temporary - chronic illnesses are not
Being a patient doesn’t always involve being sick
Model assumes that an individual voluntarily accepts the sick role
Biased towards the medical profession
Underestimates family influence
Outdated - patients no longer passive
Models of health behaviour
Health belief model
Theory of reasoned action
Theory of planned action
Stages of change model
The health belief model - 4 perceptions
perceived susceptibility to disease
perceived severity of disease
perceived benefits of health enhancing behaviour
perceived barriers to health enhancing behaviour
Cues to action
Self efficacy - want to improve this - their belief about their capabilities to exercise control over events that affect their lives
Theory of reasoned action
Assumes that people are quite reasonable and make systemic use of info when deciding how to behave
Consider the implications of their actions before they decide to engage or not in a given behaviour
Assumes that the behaviour is directed towards a goal or outcome
Main influence on our behaviour is our behaviour intention, 2 things which influence our intent is our attitude towards the behaviour and the subjective norm (what other people think of this behaviour). These 2 factors will be weighted differently for different people (persons need to conform with social norms)
Purpose of the theory is to predict and understand motivational influences on behaviour, identify how and where to target strategies for changing behaviour, why a persons buys a car, why someone votes for someone in an election
Theory of planned behaviour
Ajzen extended the theory of reasonable action to say a third influence on someone’s behavioural intention is their perceived behavioural control. The more resources and opportunities someone believes they have, the stronger are their beliefs that they can control their behaviour
Background factors in the theory of planned behaviour
Personal: self esteem, personality traits, emotions, health concern
Demographic: age, gender, race, education, income
Environment: diagnosis, stress, media exposure
Stages of change theory 5 or 7 stages
Precontemplation
Contemplation
Preparation
Action
Maintenance
Relapse or stable behaviour
Once out of the precontemplation phase, can never go back
What can affect self efficacy
Performance (have done something before and believe you can do it again)
Vicarious performance (seeing another person with similar skills perform a behaviour)
Verbal persuasion (encouraging words from someone you trust)
Physiological states (ie anxiety which would decrease self efficacy)
Infant mortality rate
Number of deaths within the 1st year x 1000 / number of live births
Morbidity rate
Number of people with disease in a population x 1000 / number of people in the population
