Session 5 - Lay beliefs; Health Promotion Flashcards
What three things can lay beliefs have an impact on?
o Impact on health behaviour
o Impact on illness behaviour
o Impact on compliance/non-compliance (adherence) with treatment
Give three types of people and their response to health problems
o Deniers – “I don’t have asthma”
o Distancers – “I don’t have proper asthma”
o Pragmatists – Only use preventative medication when asthma was bad
What is a lay belief?
o Constructed by people to understand and make sense of areas in their lives about which they have no specialised knowledge
What is the danger of a lay belief?
o Medical information may be rejected if it is incompatible with competing ideas for which people consider there is good evidence
E.g. accepted that smoking causes lung cancer, but not cervical as people don’t understand the link therefore do not believe
What is lay epidemiology?
An attempt to under why and how illness happens
- Combination of sources (person, familial and social)
What does lay epidemiology seek to explain?
Why things happened to a particular person at a particular time
What happens when lay epidemiology does not fit?
Randomness and fate to blame
Give three different perceptions of health
Negative definition
Functional definition
Positive definition
What is a negative definition of health?
Health is the absence of illness
More commonly held belief in lower socioeconomic groups
What is a functional definition of health?
Health is the ability to do certain things
What is a positive definition of health?
Health is a state of wellbeing and fitness
More commonly held belief in higher socioeconomic groups
What is health behaviour?
o Activity undertaken for the purpose of maintaining health and preventing illness
What is illness behaviour?
o Activity of ill person to define illness and seek solution
What is lay care?
Use of over the counter medications
What is the ilness iceberg?
Most symptoms never get to a doctor – The ‘Symptom/Illness Iceberg’
What is sick role behaviour?
o Formal response to symptoms, including seeking professional help.
What is the lay referral system?
o Up to 75% of those visiting a doctor have discussed their symptoms with another person.
o The Lay Referral System is 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.
What is a healthcare determinant?
Determinants of health are a range of factors that have a powering and cumulative effect on the health of the population, because they shape behaviours and environmental risk factors
Give four health care determinants
o Poverty
o Social Exclusion
o Poor Housing
o Poor health systems
What is primary prevention?
o Aims to prevent the onset of disease or injury
o Reduce exposure to risk factors
Immunisation
Quitting smoking
What is secondary prevention?
o Aims to detect and treat a disease (or its risk factors) at an early stage
o Prevent progression
Monitoring blood pressure
Screening for cervical cancer
What is tertiary prevention?
o Aims to minimise effects of established disease
Steroids for asthma
β-Blockers for high blood pressure
Renal transplants for renal failure
Give five health promotion strategies
o Medical or Preventive o Behaviour Change o Educational o Empowerment o Social Chang
Give six dilemmas of health promotion
Ethics of interfering in peoples lives Victim blaming Mistaken belief that giving people information gives them the power to change Reinforcing of negative sterotypes Unequal distribution of responsibility Prevention paradox
What s candidacy?
If people don’t see themselves as a ‘candidate’ for a disease they may not take on board the relevant health promotion messages.
Give four difficulties of evaluating outcomes of health promotion?
Design of the intervention
Timing
Confounding factors
High cost
What are three timing difficulties of evaluating outcomes of health promotion?
o Results may differ depending on when you evaluate
o Decay – Some interventions might take a long time to have effect
o Delay – Some interventions wear off rapidly (e.g. giving up smoking)
