S3: Lay beliefs and Long Term Conditions Flashcards
What are “lay beliefs”?
How people understand and make sense of health and illness
Constructed by people with no specialised knowledge
Complex - drawn from many different sources
Socially embedded
Describe 3 ways of perceiving health
Negative definition - health is the absence of disease
Positive definition - health is a state of wellbeing and fitness
Functional definition - health is the ability to do certain things
What are the two distinct uses of lay epidemiology
To understand why and how illness happens
Helps us understand why illness happened to a particular person at a particular time
How do lay beliefs affect behaviour? (3)
Health behaviour - activity undertaken for purpose of maintaining health and preventing illness
Illness behaviour - the activity of an ill person to define illness and seek a solution
Sick role behaviour - formal response to symptoms, inc seeking formal help and the actions of a person as a patient
What is the phenomenon of symptoms never seeing a doctor?
The symptom or illness iceberg
What influences illness behaviour?
Culture - social attitude Visibility or salience of symptoms The extent to which symptoms affect life Frequency ad persistence of the symptoms Tolerance threshold Information and understanding Availability of resources Lay referral
What is lay referral?
The chain of advice-seeking contacts the sick make with other lay people prior to or instead of seeking help with healthcare professionals
Why is lay referral important?
Helps you understand:
Why people might have delayed in seeking help
How, why and when people consult a doctor
Your role as a doctor in their health
Use of health services and medication
Use of alternative medications
List the work of LTCs (Long term conditions)
Illness work Everyday life work Emotional work Biographical work Identity work
What is illness work?
Getting a diagnosis, managing the symptoms, inc self-management.
What is everyday life work?
Managing daily living
What is emotional work?
Work that people do to protect the emotional wellbeing of others
What is biographical work?
Loss of self - former self-image crumbles away.
Chronic illness as a major disruptive experience
Reconstruction of biography
What is identity work?
Different illnesses carry different connotations and this affects how people see themselves and how others see them
It is work to maintain an acceptable identity
What is stigma?
Stigma is a negatively defined condition, attribute, trait or behaviour conferring deviant status
