II-9 Recognizing Symptoms and Using Health Services

Question 1

Indicate who is most likely to recognize and report physical symptoms of stress

Answer 1

• People who score high on hypochondriasis are preoccupied that normal bodily symptoms are indicators of illness.
• Individuals with conversion disorders, who convert psychological stress into physical symptoms such as headaches, back and joint pain, abdominal symptoms such as bloating, allergies to particular foods, and cardiovascular symptoms such as palpitations.
• People high in neuroticism, who tend to have negative emotions, self-consciousness, and a concern with bodily processes.
• People who are focused on or preoccupied with themselves, perhaps because they are socially isolated or insufficiently stimulated in their personal and professional lives.
• People who are chronically stressed.
• People who are high in negative affectivity, and are consistently pessimistic, anxious, depressed, and hostile.

Question 2

Describe the effect of prior experience, expectations, and seriousness on the interpretation of symptoms.

Answer 2

Prior experience: People who have experience with a medical condition are more likely to overlook or underestimate symptoms, risk factors, and physical disorders, regarding them as less serious than do people with no history of the condition.

Expectations: People may ignore symptoms they are not expecting and amplify symptoms they do expect. For example, women who believe they are close to their menstrual periods may interpret otherwise vague sources of discomfort as premenstrual symptoms; women who believe their periods are several days away may ignore the same “symptoms”.

Seriousness of the symptoms: Symptoms that affect highly valued parts of the body are usually interpreted as more serious and as more likely to require attention than are symptoms that affect less valued organs. For example, people are especially anxious when their eyes or face are affected, but less so if the symptom involves part of a finger or toe

Question 3

List the kinds of information included in an illness schema

Answer 3

An illness schema is organized set of beliefs or way of conceptualizing an illness. It includes the following information about the illness: its identity, or label, symptoms, treatments or cures, potential ramifications, causes, duration, and intensity.

Question 4

Distinguish among three models of illness based on duration

Answer 4

• Acute illness is believed to be caused by specific viral or bacterial agents and is short in duration with no long-term consequences.
• Chronic illness is believed to be caused by multiple factors, including health habits, and is long in duration, often with sever consequences.
• Cyclic illness is marked by alternating periods during which there are either no symptoms or many symptoms.

Question 5

Name some of the more commonly used “unconventional” therapies.

Answer 5

Alternative and complementary therapies include relaxation techniques, chiropractic, massage, imagery, spiritual healing, diets, herbal medicines, megavitamin therapy, self-help groups, energy healing, biofeedback, hypnosis, homeopathy, and acupuncture.

Question 6

Discuss age, gender and social class on the use of health services

Answer 6

• Age: The very young and the elderly use health services most frequently. Young children develop a number of infectious childhood diseases as they are acquiring their immunities; therefore, they frequently require the care of a pediatrician. Both illness frequency and the use of services decline in adolescence and throughout young adulthood. Use of health services increases again in late adulthood, when people begin to develop chronic conditions and diseases. They elderly use services for a variety of disorders related to the aging process.
• Gender: Women use medical services more than men do.
• Social class: The lower social classes use medical services less than do the more affluent social classes, in part because the poorer classes have less money to spend on health services. There are also fewer high-quality medical services available to the poor. Consequently, many poor people receive no regular medical care at all and see physicians only on an emergency basis. The biggest gap between the rich and the poor is in the use of preventive health services, such as inoculations against disease and screening for treatable disorders, which lays the groundwork for poorer health across life span.

Question 7

Explain why women use medical services more than men.

Answer 7

Pregnancy and childbirth account for much of the gender difference in health services use, but not all. Research also suggests that women use health services more often because their medical care is more fragmented. Medical care for most men occurs through a trip to a general practitioner for a physical examination that includes all preventive care. But women may visit a general practitioner or internist for a general physical, a gynecologist for Pap tests, and a breast cancer specialist or mammography service for breast examinations and mammograms.
It is possible that women have better homeostatic mechanisms than men do: They report pain earlier, experience temperature changes more rapidly, and detect new smells faster. Thus, they are also more sensitive to bodily disruptions, especially minor ones. Another possible explanation stems from the different social norms for men and women regarding the expression of pain and discomfort. Men are expected to project a tough image, which includes being able to ignore pain and not give in to illness, whereas women are not subject to these same pressures.

Question 8

Describe the effectiveness of the health belief model in predicting the use of health services

Answer 8

The health belief model maintains that whether a person seeks treatment for a symptom can be predicted from two factors: (1) the extent to which the person perceives a threat to health and (2) the degree to which he or she believes that a particular health measure will be effective in reducing that threat. The model does a better job of explaining the treatment-seeking behavior of people who have money and access to health care services than of people who do not.

Question 9

illness representation (schema)

Answer 9

An organized set of beliefs about an illness or a type of illness, including its nature, cause, duration, and consequences.

Question 10

lay referral network

Answer 10

An informal network of family and friends who help an individual interpret and treat a disorder before the individual seeks formal medical treatment.