08-11-21 - Use of Health Services

Question 1

Learning outcomes

Answer 1

• Describe the major factors that have been implicated in utilisation of health services
• Understand how delay in seeking treatment can influences health outcomes
• Identify the various types of health service user
• Describe the 3 stages that typically occur in treatment delay

Question 2

What are the 6 different factors that affect utilisation of healthcare services?

Answer 2

1) Differences in symptom perception
2) Influence of prior experiences, lay referral (e.g family member says go to doctor)
3) Individual health beliefs and ideas held (HBM)
4) Cost-benefit evaluation of seeking medical attention
5) Social and emotional factors
6) Quality relationship with doctor

Question 3

What are the 4 reasons contributing to an individual’s symptom perception?

Answer 3

1) Strength of underlying physical sensation
• Severity
• duration/frequency
• Familiarity

2)	 Tendency to pay intention to internal states 
•	Familiarity of symptoms
•	How quickly symptoms are noticed
•	Number/intensity of symptoms
•	Difficulty in perceiving symptoms 

3) Degree to which external stimuli competes for attention
• Work life

4) Variety of cognitive, social, emotional processes
• 2 Psychosocial influences:
• Cognition (way you think)
• Placebo (Using medication that is believed to work, but has no real effect, apart from psychological)

• Socio-cultural differences:
• Females less tolerant to painful stimulus
• Asian people report more symptoms with psychological basis than other cultures

• Greater amount of stress makes symptoms exaggerated

Question 4

What are 2 things that can affect an individual’s interpretation and response to symptoms?

What is another factor that may impact the decision to seek medical treatment?

Answer 4

• Interpretation and response to symptoms can be influenced by:

1) Individuals’ prior experiences
2) Individuals experience based knowledge

• A lay referral may occur, where a family member or friend who is not a medical professional influence someone to either seek/not seek medical treatment

Question 5

What are the 3 main components of the health belief model (HBM)?

What do these 3 factors influence?

What is an example of this model being used?

Answer 5

• 3 main components of health belief model:

1) Individual perceptions
2) Modifying factors
3) Likelihood of action

• These 3 factors all determine an individual’s perceived threat of disease, and therefore whether they will choose to utilise healthcare eservices or not

Question 6

What are the 4 social factors influencing use of healthcare services?

Answer 6

1) Sex-role stereotypes:
• Sign of weakness?
• Wanting to ignore signs of disease in order to avoid creating a fuss

2) Environmental factors and access
• Distance from clinic/surgery

3) Family income
• Higher income – accesses healthcare more
• Lower income – less likely to seek preventative care, greater episodes of major illness, and greater chances of using ER

4) Sanctioning
• Social triggers
• From family or friends advising you to seek help

Question 7

What are 7 emotional factors that affect the utilisation of healthcare services?

Answer 7

1) Emotional reaction to symptoms
2) Anxiety and fear driven by symptom perception
3) Fear of serious diagnosis
4) Expectation/fear of pain in investigation/treatment
5) Embarrassment e.g bladder control
6) Belief in treatment efficacy
7) Sense of control of events in one’s life

Question 8

What are 6 factors of relationship with a doctor that affects the utilisation of healthcare services?

Answer 8

1) Negative experiences
2) Beliefs and attitudes of healthcare professionals
3) Trust
4) Confidentiality
5) Discrimination e.g minority groups
6) Communication skills

Question 9

What is treatment delayed?

What are the 3 stags of treatment delay?

Answer 9

• Treatment delay is the time that elapses between 1st perception of symptom and when person enters the medical centre
• 3 stages of treatment delays:

1) Appraisal delay
• The time a person takes to interpret a symptom as an indication of illness
• The delay is the sensory experience of the symptom

2) Illness delay
• The time taken between recognising one is ill and deciding to seek medical attention
• The delay is in thoughts about the symptom

3) Utilisation delay
• The time taken after deciding to seek medical care until actually going in to use that health service
• The delay is in benefits and barriers