Lay Beliefs And Long Term Conditions Flashcards
What are lay beliefs?
How people understand and make sense of health and illness by people with no specialised knowledge, socially embedded.
What are the different definitions of health people can hold?
-negative definition- health is the absence of illness
-functional definition- health is the ability to do certain things
-positive definition- health is the state of wellbeing and fitness
Why can lay beliefs lead to rejection of medical evidence?
Medical info rejected in incompatible with competing idea which people consider is good evidence
What are the features of lay epidemiology?
-understand why and how illness happens
-why it happened to that person at that time- a combination of personal, familial and social knowledge
What are influences of lay beliefs on behaviour?
-health behaviour- activity done to maintain health and prevent illness
-illness behaviour- activity ill person to define illness and seek solution
-sick role behaviour- formal response to symptoms, seeking formal help and action of person as a patient.
How can social class affect definition of health?
Higher social class more likely to have positive definition of health.
Incentive of giving up smoking for people who expect to remain healthy. More able to focus on long term investments.
Incentives less clear for disadvantaged groups: normalised behaviour.
What is iceberg illness?
Most symptoms don’t get known to a doctor
What are influences of illness behaviour?
Culture, visibility of symptoms, tolerance threshold, lay referral.
What is lay referral?
Discussing symptoms/seeking advice from lay-people before seeing doctor
Importance:
-understand why people delay seeking help
-use of alternative meds
-how, why and when people consult a doctor
Whats an example of lay referral?
Rheumatoid arthritis (requires early intervention), but many delay = symptom experience, symptoms evaluation. (Key factor how quickly medical advice is sought), knowledge of treatments, experience towards healthcare professionals.
Whats the inverse care law?
The availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need for it in the population served.
E.g those that need it most don’t have access to it
What are broad groups of adherences to treatment?
Deniers has distancers - don’t accept illness and treatment
Accepters and pragmatists- do accept illness and only use meds when needed.
What are the different types of work involved in managing a long term condition?
Illness work
Everyday life work
Emotional work
Biographical work
Identity work
What is everyday life work?
-coping: cognitive process involved in dealing with illness
-strategy: actions done to manage the conditions and its impact
-normalisation: try to keep pre-illness lifestyle or your new life as normal life
What is illness work?
Getting an diagnosis, managing symptoms, self-management.
Process could be unpleasant and dealing with the physical manifestations of illness could be tough.
