Writing Resources
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
