Illness Representations

Question 1

Public general definition of Health (physiological, psychological, and behavioural factors)

Answer 1

1) physiological factors: being in a good physical condition
2) psychological factors: feeling good or happy
3) behavioural factors: practicing healthy behaviour
- referring to future consequences, e.g. living long
- Absence of illness
- > positive and multidimensional orientation

Question 2

Public general definition of Illness

Answer 2

• Absence of health
• occurrence of specific symptoms or a specific disease (“I’m ill because I have a cold/a sore throat etc.”)
• comparing consequences against a healthy condition

Question 3

What are Illness representations?

Answer 3

Illness beliefs, perceptions, cognitions or schemas

• implicit common sense beliefs of an illness
• provide a mental model (schema) of expectations of how the illness will develop
• provide a framework for coping, e.g. guiding reaction
• can vary in accuracy!!
• > beliefs shape behaviour

Question 4

Cognitive dimensions of illness representation

Answer 4

1) Identity: signs, symptoms, labels of illness
2) Cause: perceived cause of illness
3) Timeline: perceived timeframe for illness-development
4) Consequences: physical, social, economic, emotional
5) Cure/Control: perceived extend of controllability

Question 5

Disease prototype

Answer 5

identification of disease clusters and comparison against existing information and schemas
- not always accurate, e.g. asymptomatic diseases or similar symptoms for different diseases

Question 6

diagnostic labels can result in….

Answer 6

backtracking symptoms (e.g. “I believe I’ve got disease X and now keep finding more symptoms for it”)

Question 7

Implications of Identity belief based on identifying symptoms

Answer 7

1) Treatment is only sought if symptoms show
Patients don’t take preventive long-term medication (e.g. antibiotics)
2) inaccurate labelling might cause the delay in seeking care for a threatening disease
3) discrepancy between belief of symptoms and actual possible symptoms (e.g. heart attack)

Question 8

Looking for a cause for disease to….

Answer 8

make sense of the experience and provide a sense of control and predictability

Question 9

3 dimensions that determine the attribution of cause

Answer 9

1) Locus (internal vs external localisation)
2) Controllability (extend of personal control)
3) Stability (stability vs changeability)
- > basis for action plan

Question 10

Initial experience is often….

Answer 10

acute, people compare diseases with experiences and formed schemas in their childhood

Question 11

Acute timeframe

Answer 11

short-term, based on symptoms

Question 12

Cyclical timeframe

Answer 12

reoccurring

Question 13

Chronic timeframe

Answer 13

long-term, more common in old age and with less defined symptoms

Question 14

Prevalance

Answer 14

how often or common do people get this disease/is this disease

Question 15

Severity

Answer 15

less severe short-term consequences lead to delayed seeking of healthcare (even with severe short-term consequences)
- more severe illness is perceived as less controllable or curable

Question 16

self-efficacy

Answer 16

perceived control over disease

Question 17

treatment control

Answer 17

belief in effectiveness of treatment

Question 18

Measuring illness representations

Answer 18

1) Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ) and revised (IPQ-R)
2) Common Sense Model

Question 19

Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ)

Answer 19

supports all five dimensions

asks in relation to the individual’s illness

Question 20

Changes to IPQ-R

Answer 20

introduced further measures of
illness coherence
emotional representation
distinction between personal and treatment control

Question 21

Common Sense Model (CMS)

Answer 21

1) Forming a cognitive representation of illness based on personal or expert information
2) guide selection of procedures to eliminate or control health threats (making an action plan)
- > Standard Self-regulatory model