Download Chapter 8 - Dr. Saadia McLeod

Chapter
Eight:
Using
Health
Services
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Education.
•Recognition and interpretation of symptoms
•Who uses health services?
•Misusing health services
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Individual differences
• Hypochondriacs believe normal bodily symptoms are
indicators of illness
• Neurotic people either exaggerate symptoms or are
more attentive to real symptoms
Attentional differences
• People who are focused on themselves are quicker to
notice symptoms
• People with more distractions and who attend less to
themselves experience fewer symptoms
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Situational factors
• Boring situations make people more attentive to
symptoms
• Medical students’ disease: Students believing they are
ill with the same illness about which they are studying
Stress
• Stress-related physiological changes are interpreted as
symptoms of illness
Mood
• Affects perception about symptoms and perceived
vulnerability to illness
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•Prior experience - Common disorders are
regarded as less serious than rare disorders
•Expectations - Unexpected symptoms are
ignored and expected symptoms are
amplified
•Seriousness of the symptoms - Treatment is
sought only when the symptom:
• Affects a highly valued body part
• Causes pain
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•Commonsense beliefs - Held by people about
their symptoms and illnesses
• Result in organized illness representations
•Includes basic information about an illness
• Identity - Name of the illness
• Causes - Factors believed to have led to the
illness
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• Consequences - Symptoms, treatments, and
their implications for quality of life
• Time line - Length of time the illness is
expected to last
• Control/cure - Whether the person believes
the illness can be managed or cured
• Coherence - How well these beliefs represent
the disorder
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Acute illness
• Believed to be caused by viral or bacterial agents
• Short in duration, with no long-term consequences
Chronic illness
• Believed to be caused by multiple factors
• Long in duration, with severe consequences
Cyclic illness
• Alternating periods of either no symptoms or many
symptoms
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•Family and friends who offer their own
interpretations of symptoms way before the
treatment is sought
•Advice is offered regarding:
• What the symptom means
• Advisability of seeking medical treatment
• Various home remedies
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•Two-thirds of Internet users have used it to
find health information
•Many physicians depend on it for the most
up-to-date information on illnesses and
treatments
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•Age - Infants and the elderly use it most
frequently
•Gender
• Women use it more than men
• Pregnancy and childbirth account for it
• Women have better homeostatic mechanisms
• Women’s medical care is more fragmented
• Men are expected to ignore pain and not give
in to illness
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•Social class and culture - Lower social classes
use it less than affluent ones
•Social psychological factors
• Individual’s attitudes and beliefs toward
health services and symptoms
• Children learn how to use health services from
their parents
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•Psychological complaints - Nonmedical
complaints that stem from anxiety and
depression
•People use health services for psychological
complaints as:
• They are accompanied by physical symptoms
• Medical disorders are perceived to be more
legitimate than psychological ones
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• It leads to secondary gains
• Secondary gains: Benefits gained from being ill
• They need to document their absence in order
to collect wages at work
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Putting off seeking treatment for one or
more potentially serious symptoms
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Appraisal delay
• Time taken to decide that a symptom is serious
Illness delay
• Time between the recognition that a symptom implies an
illness and the decision to seek treatment
Behavioral delay
• Time between deciding to seek treatment and actually
doing so
Medical delay
• Time that elapses between the person’s calling for an
appointment and his or her receiving appropriate medical
care
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•Common among people:
• With no regular contact with a physician
• Who are phobic about medical services
•Symptoms that delay seeking treatment
• Those similar to a previous one that turned
out to be minor
• Those that do not hurt or change quickly
• Those that are easily accommodated
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•Typical symptoms of a disorder are more
likely to be treated
•Delay in taking recommended treatments
• Patients no longer feel any urgency about
their condition
• Patients become alarmed by the symptoms
and avoid thinking about them altogether
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• Delay in the part of the health care
practitioner
• Medical delay is likely when a patient deviates
from the profile of the average person with a
given disease
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