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Health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.
True
Illness is defined as a pathological change diagnosed by signs and symptoms.
False
Hypertension is considered an illness in all cases.
False
The requirement of complete health excludes most of the population as unhealthy.
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Phantom limb pain is an example of a disease without illness.
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The biopsychosocial model of health considers only biological factors.
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The perception of health and illness is uniform across all individuals.
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Disease can be diagnosed through objective signs and symptoms.
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Psychological factors can contribute to the aetiology of health and illness.
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The biomedical model fully accounts for psychosocial causes of health issues.
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Almost 90% of respondents had heard a radio or TV stroke advertisement.
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Two-thirds of respondents correctly identified at least two warning signs of a stroke.
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57% of respondents would call an ambulance if stroke symptoms occurred.
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Increased knowledge of symptoms lowers the perception of them.
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Experiencing a novel symptom makes it less likely to be perceived as serious.
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Having a pre-existing chronic disease reduces the number of symptoms perceived.
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The biomedical model considers the patient as a victim of illness.
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The biopsychosocial model includes only objective biomedical data in understanding illness.
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According to the biopsychosocial model, the relationship between mind and body is viewed as interrelated.
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The biopsychosocial model treats illness as multifactorial.
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The traditional biomedical model focuses on multiple levels of organization.
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In the biopsychosocial model, health promotion is the responsibility of solely the medical profession.
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In the context of the biopsychosocial model, chronic states are viewed as separate from the disease state.
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Personal history is a factor in the biopsychosocial model of illness.
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Illness representations have no effect on medical treatment adherence.
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The Big Five Theory of Personality includes measures of extraversion and neuroticism.
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Eysenck believed that personality is solely determined by environmental factors.
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High levels of physiological arousal are associated with introverted individuals.
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The Big Five Traits have a strong association with physical health.
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Personality traits can influence a person's quality of life.
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The relationship between personality and health outcomes is not supported by evidence.
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Low levels of conscientiousness are linked to higher health-related risk behaviors.
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Personality has a direct effect on mental health.
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The effect of personality on physical health is strong and direct.
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The biopsychosocial model recognizes uniform responses to diseases among individuals.
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Health behaviors are key in mediating the effect of personality on physical health.
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Not everyone who needs treatment will seek treatment immediately.
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A good clinician only uses a one-size-fits-all approach to patient care.
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Illness perceptions can influence coping and health outcomes.
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Explicit understanding of personality traits has no impact on medical practice.
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Health is merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
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Illness is defined as an objective change in body function that can be diagnosed.
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The requirement of complete health would include almost all individuals as unhealthy.
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Hypertension is an example of a disease without illness.
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Different individuals respond to illness in exactly the same way due to uniform perceptions.
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Phantom limb pain is categorized as a disease rather than an illness.
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The biopsychosocial model treats health outcomes as influenced only by biological factors.
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Personality traits can significantly influence one's health outcomes.
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Over two-thirds of participants in the Stroke Awareness Questionnaire were able to correctly identify two warning signs of stroke.
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Individuals experiencing persistent symptoms are less likely to perceive these as significant.
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The concept of 'mass psychogenic illness' refers to well-publicized illnesses increasing symptom perception.
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An individual is more motivated to perceive a symptom if it is associated with pleasant bodily sensations.
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A novel symptom is likely to be seen as trivial and not linked to serious health issues.
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Increased knowledge about symptoms can lead to heightened perception of these symptoms.
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Having a chronic disease decreases the likelihood of perceiving additional symptoms.
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Attentional states do not affect the perception of symptoms in individuals.
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The biopsychosocial model considers only the patient's subjective experience.
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In the biopsychosocial model, chronic states are interconnected with the disease state.
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The traditional biomedical model treats patients as active participants in their treatment.
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According to the biopsychosocial model, health promotion is a responsibility shared by both the medical profession and the patient.
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Personal history does not play a role in the biopsychosocial model of illness.
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The biopsychosocial model acknowledges the role of psychological factors in health and illness.
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The biomedical model considers the relationship between health and illness as a continuum.
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Causality in the common-sense model of illness refers to the factors contributing to the development of the illness.
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The timeline factor in illness representations refers to the immediate consequences of an illness.
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The biopsychosocial model asserts that the mind and body function independently.
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The identity factor in illness perceptions relates to the label given to an illness and the symptoms associated with it.
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Control/Cure in the common-sense model indicates whether an illness is controllable only by medical professionals.
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Beliefs about the long-term effects of an illness fall under the consequences theme in illness representations.
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A chronic problem is viewed as one that is expected to resolve quickly.
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Patients often have a single perception of illness that is uniform across all individuals.
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The common-sense model of illness includes emotional responses to illness as part of its framework.
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Personality traits have no influence on health behaviors.
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Perceived stress is a key mechanism linking personality and mental health.
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The direct effect of personality on physical health is stronger than its effect on mental health.
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Health is simply the absence of illness according to the biopsychosocial model.
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Illness perceptions can affect how individuals cope with health challenges.
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A good clinician should adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to patient care.
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Symptom perception and healthcare seeking behaviors are influenced by several factors.
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The relationship between personality and health outcomes is well supported by evidence.
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The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
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Disease is defined as a subjective experience of negative changes in well-being.
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Illness and disease can coexist, as illustrated by renal failure which is an example of a disease.
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Hypertension is classified as an illness in all cases.
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Phantom limb pain is an example of a disease experienced without an actual pathological condition.
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The biopsychosocial model of health focuses exclusively on biological factors in the understanding of health.
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The subjective perception of illness can vary greatly between different individuals, even for the same disease.
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According to Huber (2011), the requirement of complete health would leave most of the population classified as unhealthy.
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The biomedical model acknowledges the role of psychological factors in health and illness.
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A novel symptom is more likely to be perceived as serious.
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Increased exposure to public health advertisements can decrease symptom perception.
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Persistent bodily signs are unlikely to be perceived as symptoms.
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Experiencing a pre-existing chronic disease decreases the number of reported symptoms.
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Attentional states have no impact on an individual's perception of illness symptoms.
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Mass psychogenic illness can occur as a consequence of increased knowledge about certain illnesses.
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Individuals often overlook significant symptoms when distracted by other events, like winning a race.
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The biopsychosocial model exclusively focuses on physiological and biochemical mechanisms in illness.
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In the biopsychosocial model, the relationship between health and illness is viewed as a continuum.
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The biomedical model primarily considers patients as responsible for their own illnesses.
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Personal history, including genetic and developmental factors, is disregarded in the biopsychosocial model.
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Illness representations are influential in determining patient treatment adherence.
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The biopsychosocial model completely eliminates the relevance of objective biomedical data.
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The traditional biomedical model is considered inadequate for addressing the complexity of health issues.
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Health promotion is solely the responsibility of individual patients in the biopsychosocial model.
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The common-sense model of illness includes the belief about the curability of an illness.
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One of the key themes in the self-regulation model is the belief about how quickly an illness will develop, termed as causality.
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Positive representations of illness generally relate to the belief that one's health will improve in the long term.
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The timeline component of the common-sense model always indicates a chronic condition.
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Smoking is considered an unchangeable factor in the causality of illness according to the common-sense model.
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Illness representations encompass beliefs regarding the identity of the illness and its associated symptoms.
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The self-regulation model of illness includes only emotional factors without consideration for practical health beliefs.
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Patients' beliefs about returning to work are irrelevant to understanding their illness representations according to the model.
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Illness representations solely affect physical health outcomes.
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Eysenck proposed that personality is influenced primarily by genetic factors.
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The Big Five Theory of Personality is unrelated to health behaviors.
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High levels of neuroticism are associated with improved physical health outcomes.
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The Big Five personality traits have the strongest association with overall physical health.
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Personality traits can have a measurable impact on quality of life.
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Eysenck identified only two dimensions of personality: introversion and extraversion.
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Introverted individuals typically exhibit low levels of physiological arousal.
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Study Notes
Defining Health and Illness
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." (1947)
- Achieving complete health is an unrealistic standard, as most people would likely not meet this definition. (Huber 2011)
- There is a strong subjective component to health and illness, influenced by personal experience and social values.
Distinguishing Health, Illness and Disease
- Disease is an objective, medical diagnosis, with identifiable signs and symptoms. It refers to a pathological change in the structure or function of the body.
- Illness is a subjective experience, perceived by the individual as a negative change in their state of well-being and social function.
- Hypertension is an example of disease without illness.
- Phantom limb painis an example of illness without disease.
Biopsychosocial Model of Illness
- This model acknowledges the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors in contributing to health and illness.
- It recognizes that biological processes (e.g., genetics, exposure to pathogens), psychological factors (stress, coping strategies), and social factors (community support, socioeconomic status) all have a significant impact on health outcomes.
- This model is a departure from the traditional biomedical model, which solely focused on biological factors.
Symptom Perception and Illness
- Individuals vary significantly in their attention to and interpretation of bodily symptoms.
- Social influences and media attention regarding specific illnesses can increase symptom perception (e.g., mass psychogenic illness).
- The knowledge of symptoms can also increase their perception (e.g., "medical student's disease").
- Factors that enhance symptom perception include:
- Painful or disruptive symptoms
- Novel or unfamiliar symptoms
- Persistent symptoms
- Pre-existing chronic diseases.
Illness Representations and Outcomes
- Individual interpretations of their illness (illness representations) impact their healthcare seeking behavior, self-care practices, attitudes towards treatment, and overall quality of life.
Personality and Health Outcomes
- The Big Five Theory of Personality suggests that personality traits, often shaped by genetics, can influence health outcomes.
- Traits like extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience have shown links to physical and mental health outcomes.
- A meta-analysis (Strickhouser 2017) found that personality, particularly neuroticism, was most strongly associated with mental health, followed by health behaviors, and with a lesser effect on physical health.
Relevancy of Personality in Medical Practice
- Understanding personality traits can help clinicians tailor treatment approaches, potentially leading to better outcomes.
Conclusions
- There is nuance in the concepts of health and illness, and the biopsychosocial model emphasizes that individuals do not always respond uniformly to disease.
- Illness perceptions shape individual responses to medical care and health outcomes.
- It is important to acknowledge individual differences in symptom perception and healthcare-seeking behaviors.
Defining Health and Illness
- The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.
- Huber (2011) argues that the WHO definition’s requirement for complete health is unrealistic, excluding most of the population as unhealthy.
- Health and illness are subjective and encompass social and moral values, beyond only biological aspects.
Disease vs Illness
- Disease refers to objective pathological changes diagnosed by signs and symptoms. It implies an abnormality in the structure or function of body organs or systems.
- Illness is the subjective experience of negative changes in well-being and social function. Perception and response to illness vary greatly among individuals.
- Examples: Hypertension is a disease but may not cause illness without symptoms. Phantom limb pain is an illness in the absence of any demonstrable disease.
Biopsychosocial Model
- The biopsychosocial model acknowledges that multiple factors contribute to illness. This perspective contrasts with the traditional biomedical model, which primarily focuses on biological factors.
- The biopsychosocial model emphasizes a holistic approach, acknowledging the interrelationship between biological, psychological, and social factors in health and illness.
Symptom Perception
- Individual reactions to symptoms vary greatly.
- Research has shown that people may be aware of stroke warning signs but not act accordingly due to various factors - lack of confidence, misinterpreting symptoms, or simply denying them.
- Attentional states influence symptom perception. Increased knowledge of symptoms can lead to increased perception, as is often seen with medical students.
- Distractions, conversely, can reduce symptom perception.
Factors Increasing Symptom Perception
- Painful or disruptive symptoms requiring adaptation are more likely to be perceived as symptoms.
- Novel symptoms are more likely to be considered indicators of something serious.
- Persistent symptoms beyond usual durations or despite self-medication increase perception.
- Chronic conditions increase the number of other symptoms perceived and reported.
The Common Sense Model of Illness
- The Common Sense Model of Illness (CSM) attempts to understand how individuals perceive and cope with illness.
- It's a self-regulation model, suggesting that individuals use their own knowledge and experiences to understand their illness, make decisions about treatment, and manage their condition.
- The CSM identifies five key aspects of illness representations:
- Identity: The label given to the illness and its associated symptoms.
- Causality: Beliefs about what caused the illness.
- Timeline: Beliefs about how long the illness will last.
- Consequences: Perceived effects of the illness on daily life.
- Curability/Controllability: Whether the illness is considered curable and if it can be controlled by the individual or through external interventions.
Illness Representations and Clinical Practice
- Understanding an individual's illness representations can guide clinical practice.
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Questions about illness representations can help clinicians gain a better understanding of a patient's perspectives and experiences:
- What is the individual's understanding of the illness?
- What do they think caused their health problem?
- What are their beliefs about the potential outcomes of the illness?
- How do they perceive their ability to manage their condition?
Personality, Health, and Illness
- Personality traits can influence health behaviors and, consequently, health outcomes.
- Perceived stress is a key mechanism linking personality to health behaviors and physical health.
- The direct impact of personality on physical health is less robust and often mediated by its effect on health behaviors.
Conclusion
- Health and illness are multifactorial concepts influenced by biological, psychological, and social determinants.
- Individual responses to illness are diverse.
- Illness perceptions play a critical role in shaping coping mechanisms and therefore, influencing health outcomes.
- The biopsychosocial model and the Common Sense Model of Illness provide valuable frameworks for understanding the complex nature of health and illness, ultimately guiding effective healthcare practices.
Health, Illness and Disease
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
- The WHO's definition is considered to be a high standard and likely excludes most of the population.
- Illness is a subjective experience.
- Disease is a biological state, illness is a social construct.
- Illness can exist without disease, and disease can exist without illness.
- There is a complex interaction between disease and illness.
- The historical model for understanding health and illness is the biomedical model.
- The biomedical model focuses solely on exposure to pathogens and their impact, ignoring psychological and social factors.
- The modern biopsychosocial model recognizes the influence of multiple factors on health and illness outcomes.
- The biopsychosocial model emphasizes the interconnectedness of biological, psychological, and social factors, including personal history, genetic predisposition, and learned behaviors.
- The biomedical model promotes a passive patient role, while the biopsychosocial model encourages active involvement in managing health and illness.
Symptoms and Illness Perception
- The perception of symptoms is subjective and influenced by various factors, including attentional state and personal experiences.
- Increased knowledge of symptoms can lead to increased perception of them, potentially leading to medical student's disease.
- The perception of symptoms is also influenced by social factors, such as media coverage and public awareness.
- Painful or disruptive symptoms are more likely to be perceived as significant.
- Novel symptoms, persistent symptoms, and pre-existing chronic diseases may increase symptom perception.
Common Sense Model of Illness
- The common-sense model of illness attempts to explain how individuals understand and cope with illness experiences.
- The model identifies five key themes that shape illness representations: identity, causality, timeline, consequences, and curability/controllability.
- Illness representations influence decision-making regarding medical treatment, self-care, and behaviour change.
Personality and Health Outcomes
- The Big Five Theory of Personality identifies five major personality traits:
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
- The Big Five Theory is a trait approach to personality, emphasizing stable and enduring dimensions.
- Personality traits are linked to health outcomes, particularly mental health, health behaviors, and physical health.
- The impact of personality on health is moderated by various factors, underscoring the complexity of the relationship between personality and health.
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Test your understanding of the definitions of health, illness, and disease based on the WHO's framework and the biopsychosocial model. Explore the subjective and objective aspects of these concepts and enhance your knowledge on the distinctions between them.
