S2- Living with illness- Lay beliefs Flashcards
Define health
A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
What is the biopsychosocial model?
Health and illness related to:
- BIO: physiology, genetics and pathogens
- PSYCHO: cognition, emotion and behaviour
- SOCIAL: social class, employment, social support etc
What does the term lay mean?
We use the term “lay” to mean people who are neither health care professionals nor health services researchers, but who may have specialised knowledge related to health.
Why is the biopsychosocial model important in medicine?
- biomedical model only involves physical intervention and doesnt look at the psycholgical or social factors
- medicine isnt the only form of treament
- too narrow of a picture!
How are lay beliefs formed?
- combination of personal, familial and social sources of knowledge
- observe and generate hypotheses from experiences of those around us
If a patient that smokes and drinks and has other friends who do the same, what could their lay beliefs be and how could this influence them seeking medical help?
- their friends have smoked every day and never had an ill day in their life and hence they are less likely to believe how bad of a habit smoking is
What are:
a) negative definition
b) functional definition
c) postitive defintions
of health?
a) health is absence of illness
b) health is the ability to do certain things
c) health is a state of wellbeing and fitness
What is:
a) health behaviour
b) illness behaviour
c) sick role behaviour
A) activity that impacts health or helps prevent illness
b) activity of ill person to define illness and seek solution
c) formal response to symptoms, including seeking formal help and action of person as patient
Smoking is more prevalent among lower socioeconomic groups why might this be?
- higher social class : have positive definition of health and hence incentives of giving up smoking are more evident for groups who could expect to remain healthy so quitting is rational choice
- disadvantaged groups: negative definition of health, smoking is more likely to be a normalised behaviour due to growing up with it and it could also be a coping mechanism
- smoking is a rational choice
What influences illness behaviour?
- culture e.g. stoical attitude
- visibility or salience of symptoms
- extent to which symptoms distrupt life
- frequency and persistence of symptoms
- tolerance threshold
- information and understanding
- availability of resources
- lay referral
a) What is lay referral?
b) Why is it important?
a) the chain of advice seeking contacts which the sick make with other lay people prior to or instead of seeking help from health care professionals
b) helps u understand why people have delayed seeking help, why and whn people consult a doctor, your role as a doctor in health, use of health services and medication and use of alternative medicines
What are the 3 lay beliefs of patients in regards to taking medicine and what are the differences?
- Deniers and distancers: denied having an illness or claimed symptoms do not affect their life, taking medication means they have to accept ill identity
- Acceptors: accepted diagnosis and doctors advice completely, normal life involves having control over symtpoms with medication
- Pragmatists: did use preventitive medication but only when illness is bad
What is a chronic illness?
Disease that cannot be cured but can be controlled with medical interventions
What is parsons sick role theory?
- a temporary, medically sanctioned form of deviant behaviour
- described illness as deviance -as health is generally necessary for a functional society
- The sick person is exempted from carrying out some or all of normal social duties (e.g. work, family).
- order to get well, the sick person needs to seek and submit to appropriate medical care.
What are some a) functional (1) and b) interpretive (3) theories of experience of illness?
a) Parsons sick role
b) Stigma, biographical distruption and illness naratives
