Session 4 - Lay beliefs

Question 1

What is the positive definition of health?

Answer 1

Health is a state of well being and fitness

Question 2

What is the functional definition of health?

Answer 2

health is the ability to do things

Question 3

What is a negative definition of health?

Answer 3

Health is the absence of illness

Question 4

How might lay epidemiology and lay believe in why an illness occurs be detrimental to their health?

Answer 4

Lay person may not want to associate their risk factor (e.g. smoking) as causing their illness and may blame other thing.
They may therefore ignore the doctors advice.

Question 5

What is the ‘ideal candidate’?

Answer 5

A lay believe that only a certain group of people will develop a disease (e.g. obesity people only get heart attacks)
deviations from this ideal is put down to chance and randomness

Question 6

lay beliefs on health and illness…..

Answer 6

• are complex
• drawn of social interactions, culture, personal knowledge and experience
• can lead to rejection of medical knowledge as uncompilable with other competing ideas

Question 7

Factors influencing illness behaviour include

Answer 7

Lay referral
Culture 
Impact on life
Visualisation of symptoms
Resources
Tolerance threshold
persistence of symptoms 
info and understanding

Question 8

What is health behaviour?

Answer 8

Activity undertaken to maintain health and prevent illness

seen in those with a positive definition of health

Question 9

What is the symptom illness iceburg?

Answer 9

Phenomenon where most symptoms are never seen by a doctor

most people either do nothing or self medicate instead of seeing doctor.

Question 10

Define lay referal

Answer 10

The chain of advice seeking contacts a lay person makes with other lay people instead of or prior to seeking advice from a doctor.

Question 11

Why is understanding lay referral important?

Answer 11

• Understand why people delay in seeing a doctor
• the use of alternative medicines
• How, why and when people consult their doctor

Question 12

Why may patients delay seeing their doctors with a medical issue?

Answer 12

• Not the ideal candidate
• Their symptom experience (how bad they are0
• Symptom evaluation (there may be another logical explanation to a symptom
• Lack of knowledge and understanding (unable to recognise a symptom may be related to a disease)
• A negative passed experience in healthcare
• Self perception of what a classical sign of a disease may be (e.g. people may associate a heart attack with suddenly keeling over and passing out instead of chest pain…..?)

Question 13

What are lay beliefs

Answer 13

How people understand illness and disease constructed by people with no specialist knowledge…not watered down medical knowledge!