Essay Example on Person goes through 3 stages of delay Behaviour

A person goes through 3 stages of delay behaviour when someone requires medical treatment The three stages are Appraisal Delay Illness Delay and Utilization Delay There are other several social and emotional factors that affects people's decisions Appraisal Delay stage AD Refers to the time a person takes to appraise a symptom as a sign of illness Am I ill Illness Delay stage ID Refers to the time taken from deciding a person is ill until deciding to seek professional medical care Do I need medical care Utilization Delay stage UD Refers to the time from the decision to seek care until the patent goes to the clinic and uses its services Is that care worth the costs To further elaborate on what Appraisal Delay is it is a stage in which a patient takes time to interpret whether the symptom he she is experiencing is a sign of illness or not This is the most important stage as the longer the patient takes to decide whether their symptoms are signs of illness the longer the delay will be to move on the next stage One of the main factors that affects the delay is the severity of the pain For example a person is coughing for more than a month but is still unsure if the cough is a normal cough or has more severe underlying illnesses However a person would believe that he she is having Bronchitis if he she is coughing up blood rather than just coughing Illness Delay on the other hand is a stage in which a patient realizes that the symptom he she is having implies an illness and made a decision to seek professional medical care 

However if they do take action quick enough and reduce the Utilization Delay the positive outcomes would take effect almost immediately reducing the seriousness and long term effects of the illness For example patients who are obese who seek treatment faster would reduce their chances of getting diabetes high cholesterol and high blood pressure Not only would the negative effects subside slowly positive effects would also take place Such as increasing of dopamine levels within the body increase in self confidence and motivation to lead a healthy lifestyle Another factor to what creates a delay to seek medical treatment are Social and Emotional factors This is rather common problem that people face which often goes unrecognize due to its unwritten facts of signs and symptoms One of the common emotional problem would be shame This makes patients feel uncomfortable seeking treatments because of the imaginary embarrassment they think they might face For example people with possible heart symptoms may feel ashamed when they seek treatment only to find out it was nothing serious In conclusion delaying medical attention will lead to more server damage in comparison to earlier treatment These are separated into the 3 stages of delay behavior and the social factors that comes along with that These symptoms are apparent and the most common causes of delaying a treatment