Understanding Nonadherence to Medical Advice and the Health Belief Model
TITLE
Describe what psychologists have discovered about types of nonadherence to medical advice, reasons why patients do not adhere, and the health belief model.
ESSAY
🌟Types of Non💥Adherence and Problems🌟
Types of non💥adherence to medical advice can manifest in various ways, such as failure to follow treatment plans, not attending appointments, reluctance to make lifestyle changes, inconsistency in pill💥taking regimens, and neglecting preventative measures. The consequences of non💥adherence can lead to lack of health improvement, development of unrelated health issues due to non💥compliance with prescribed medications, financial burdens from missed appointments, potential risks like medication ingestion by children, and wastage of resources.
🌟Why Patients Don’t Adhere: Rational Non💥Adherence by Bulpitt (1994)🌟
Rational non💥adherence involves patients consciously choosing to deviate from recommended medical advice after conducting a cost💥benefit analysis. Bulpitt's research on hypertension treatment highlighted how individuals focus on the risks associated with medications, such as potential side effects like diabetes, gout, and dry mouth while overlooking the significant benefits like reduced risks of strokes and coronary events. This suggests that patients may opt not to adhere to treatments due to a perceived high cost of compliance compared to the anticipated benefits.
🌟The Health Belief Model (Becker and Rosenstock, 1979)🌟
The Health Belief Model posits that individuals make health💥related decisions based on rational assessments, influenced by factors such as perceptions of vulnerability to health issues, severity of perceived health problems, and self💥efficacy beliefs. Additional determinants like cultural norms, educational background, perceived benefits of recommended actions, perceived barriers to compliance, and external cues to action (e.g., media campaigns) are also considered in this model. The interplay of these elements helps predict the likelihood of individuals following preventive health measures.
By understanding the various types of non💥adherence, exploring reasons behind patient reluctance to adhere to medical advice through rational non💥adherence, and delving into the framework of the Health Belief Model, healthcare providers can better tailor interventions and communication strategies to enhance patient compliance and overall health outcomes.
SUBJECT
PSYCHOLOGY
LEVEL
A level and AS level
NOTES
Types of non💥adherence and problems:
💥 Types of non💥adherence include not wanting to make a change in lifestyle (e.g. change diet); not following advice in the short term (e.g. regime of pill💥taking); not engaging in preventative measures linked to health (e.g. using condoms); and failing to attend further appointment or interview.
💥 Problems caused by non💥adherence include a lack of improvement in health; becoming ill with a different health problem due to not taking drugs; financial costs when appointments are not kept and they are unavailable for others to take; danger due to untaken drugs being left within a child's reach; wasted money on drugs.
Why patients don’t adhere:
Rational non💥adherence refers to the patient making a reasoned decision due to undertaking a cost💥benefit analysis. It seems too costly to adhere. It is a complex interaction of a number of factors. Bulpitt (1994) asserted that people seem to be obsessed with risk but rarely consider benefits. Bulpitt looked at the risks and benefits of a drug treatment for hypertension (high blood pressure). Risks included increased diabetes, gout, and dry mouth but these were either not serious or at a very low rate. Benefits included reduction in strokes by 40% and coronary events by 44%. It seems people rationally decide not to take the medication because of the risks whilst ignoring the benefits.
Health belief model:
The health belief model by Becker and Rosenstock (1979) predicts people will make health decisions rationally, based on the assumption that people are willing to change their behaviors depending on a number of factors. These include individual perceptions of perceived vulnerability to health problem, perceived severity of health problem, and self💥efficacy beliefs. There are modifying factors like culture and educational level, perceived benefits of behavior and perceived barriers to behavior, together with perceived threat in relation to health problems and various cues to action such as pain or a media campaign. Together, these interact to predict the likelihood of taking recommended preventive health actions.