Illness cognition: Using common sense to understand treatment adherence and affect cognition interactions

Leventhal, Howard; Diefenbach, Michael A.; Leventhal, Elaine A.

doi:10.1007/bf01173486

Cited by 1,292 publications

(1,083 citation statements)

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“…Research on perceptions and behaviors related to infectious diseases in general, and to pandemics in special, has not yet developed its theoretical basis in the same sense that it has been done in the area of chronic, lifestyle diseases. Leventhal's illness perception framework and self-regulation model [10][11][12], as well as psychosomatics health worry approach [13], and optimism theory to counter for risk perception bias [14] have mostly been used as theoretical approaches in this area. There is very little literature on determinants of health risk taking during travel, and no study to our knowledge has used validated psychological measures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Willingness to Take Travel-Related Health Risks—A Study among Finnish Tourists in Asia during the Avian Influenza Outbreak

Aro

Vartti²,

Schreck³

et al. 2009

Int.J. Behav. Med.

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Background Health risk perception and behavior of tourists during epidemics is a challenge for behavioral medicine.Purpose The purpose was to analyze associations of psychosocial factors and willingness to take health risks on holiday and business trips. Method Subjects (survey n=338) were Finnish tourists visiting South-East Asia during the avian influenza epidemic of 2004. On holidays, 13.8%, and on business trips, 6.3% would take (rather) high risks, 14.1% reported having tendency to take health risks. Willingness to take health risks on both kinds of trips was lower among those +40 years old than those <40. Comparatively high risk-taking tendency and high perceived HIV risk were related to the increased willingness to take health risks on both kinds of trips. Results On holidays, willingness to take health risks was related to trust in fate, and on business trips, this was also related to trust in God and less precautionary behavior of avoiding hand shaking, but also to higher estimation of other risks in life. Conclusion Younger travelers and those on holidays are willing to take more health risks than those who are older or on business trips. Travel advice during epidemics could be differentially targeted to different age groups and to holiday and business travelers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Willingness to Take Travel-Related Health Risks—A Study among Finnish Tourists in Asia during the Avian Influenza Outbreak

Aro

Vartti²,

Schreck³

et al. 2009

Int.J. Behav. Med.

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“…Initially, we conducted and analyzed a small set of patient interviews to elucidate patients' knowledge and beliefs about CHF, the strategies they use for selfcare, the cues guiding these strategies and barriers they face in trying to maintain their health. We then examined the match between the themes we uncovered, and the factors identified as critical for self-management by the common-sense model of illness (Leventhal, Meyer, & Nerenz, 1980;Leventhal, Diefenbach, & Leventhal, 1992;Brownlee, Leventhal, & Leventhal, 2000). According to this self-regulation model of the mental processes involved in the management of illness threats, self-management reflects how patients' conceptualize their perceptual experience with a disease.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A story of maladies, misconceptions and mishaps: effective management of heart failure

Horowitz¹,

Rein²,

Leventhal³

2004

Social Science & Medicine

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240

282

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Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a common chronic disease with effective therapy, yet interventions to improve outcomes have met with limited success. Though problems in selfmanagement are suspected causes for deterioration, few efforts have been made to understand how self-management could be improved to enhance the lives of affected patients. We conducted semistructured interviews of 19 patients with CHF treated at an urban United States hospital to elucidate their knowledge and beliefs about CHF and to understand what underlies their self-care routines. A comparison of the themes generated from these interviews with the common-sense model for self-management of illness threats, clarifies how patients' perceptions and understanding of CHF affected their behaviors. Patients had an acute model of CHF. They did not connect chronic symptoms with a chronic disease, CHF, and did not recognize that these symptoms worsened over time from their baseline of moderate, chronic distress, to a severe state that required urgent care. As a consequence, they often did not manage symptoms on a routine basis and did not, therefore, prevent or minimize exacerbations. When they worsened, many patients reported barriers to reaching their physicians and most reported seeking care primarily in an emergency room.These in depth responses elucidate how the interplay between acute and chronic models of a chronic illness effect self-management behaviors. These factors play a previously not understood role in patient's efforts to understand and manage the ever-present but symptomatically variable chronic illness that is CHF. These new concepts illustrate the tools that may be needed to effectively manage this serious and disabling illness, and suggest possible ways to enhance the self-management process and ultimately improve patients' lives.

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“…Previous studies typically have been of limited size and power and could not include the full range of variables that are implicated in screening, although there are a few important exceptions. 44 Herein, we include not only demographic and structural variables, such as physician referral, but also health beliefs and socioemotional variables, which are linked strongly to culture 45,46 and are potentially amenable to modification through culturally tailored message framing. For the current study, we operationalized ethnicity at a high level of specificity, differentiating among three groups of African descent (U.S.-born African Americans, English-speaking Caribbean, and Haitians), one Hispanic group of Dominican women, and two additional European groups (U.S.-born European Americans and Eastern-European immigrants).…”

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confidence: 99%

Diversity matters: Unique populations of women and breast cancer screening

Magai

Consedine

Conway

et al. 2004

Cancer

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BACKGROUND. Ethnic differences in breast cancer screening behaviors are well established. However, there is a lack of understanding regarding exactly what causes these differences and which characteristics in low-screening populations should be targeted in an effort to modify screening behavior. METHODS.Stratified cluster sampling was used to recruit 1364 women (ages 50 -70 years) from 6 ethnic groups: African-American women; U.S.-born white women;English-speaking Caribbean, Haitian, and Dominican women; and immigrant Eastern-European women. In interviews, respondents provided information concerning demographic and structural variables related to mammogram utilization (age, education, income, marital status, physician recommendation, access, and insurance) and a set of cognitive variables (fatalism, perception of personal risk, health beliefs concerning cancer) and socioemotional variables (stress, cancer worry, embarrassment, and pain). RESULTS.For data analysis, the authors used a 2-step logistic regression with frequency of mammograms over a 10-year period (Յ 4 mammograms over 10 years or Ն 5 mammograms over 10 years) as a dependent variable. U.S.-born AfricanAmerican women and Dominican women were screened as frequently as European-American women, but the remaining minority groups were screened with less frequency. With one exception, ethnicity ceased to predict screening frequency once cognitive and emotional variables were controlled. CONCLUSIONS.Although women from clearly operationalized ethnic groups continue to screen at rates substantially below those of the majority groups, these differences appear to be explained substantially by differences in psychologic variables. This is encouraging because, rather than targeting culture for interven- B reast cancer is the second most common malignancy in women. 1 Although there has been some recent controversy, 2 a number of studies and reviews have shown that mammography reduces mortality, 3,4 and several authors have argued that early detection and screening represent our best means for decreasing breast cancer mortality. [5][6][7] Across the last 2 decades, a large body of descriptive research has documented the background factors that are believed to act barriers to, and facilitators of, mammography. In general, greater age, 8 -13 lower income and education, 14 -16 single marital status, 10 the absence of insurance, 17 and lack of physician recommendation 6,18 -20 all were reported to be predictive of poorer mammography utilization. Minority women also are less likely to have regular mammograms, a finding that is attributed commonly to lower education and income. What is of interest, however, is that ethnic differences in screening behavior persist even when variables such as socioeconomic status or education do not differ or are controlled statistically. 7,21,22 A growing number of screening studies also have examined an array of cognitive, attitudinal, and emotional factors that act as barriers to regular screening: patient perceptions of vulnerability,...

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Illness cognition: Using common sense to understand treatment adherence and affect cognition interactions

Cited by 1,292 publications

References 39 publications

Willingness to Take Travel-Related Health Risks—A Study among Finnish Tourists in Asia during the Avian Influenza Outbreak

Willingness to Take Travel-Related Health Risks—A Study among Finnish Tourists in Asia during the Avian Influenza Outbreak

A story of maladies, misconceptions and mishaps: effective management of heart failure

Diversity matters: Unique populations of women and breast cancer screening

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