PSY 3110 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Transtheoretical Model, Health Action Process Approach, Operant Conditioning
19 Sep 2016
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ADHERING TO HEALTHY BEHAVIOR
What is Adherence?
ADHERENCE: a person's ability and willingness to follow recommended health practices. Or the extent to
which a person's behavior coincides with medical or health advice.
How is adherence measured?
1- ask the practitioner
2- ask the patient
3- ask other people
4- monitor medication usage
5- examine biochemical evidence
6- use a combo of these procedures
• No one of these procedures is both reliable and valid. When accuracy is crucial, using two or
more of these methods yields greater accuracy than reliance on a single technique.
• The frequency of non adherence depends on the nature of the illness. People are more likely to
adhere to a medication regimen than to a program that changes health related aspects. The
average non-adherence is slightly less than 25%.
• Barriers include, difficulty of altering lifestyles of long duration, inadequate practitioner-patient
communications and erroneous beliefs as to what advice patients should follow.
What factors affect adherence?
• Personal characteristics and environmental factors. Also specific health beliefs that are more
easily modifiable.
o Severity of the disease
o Treatment characteristics
o Personal characteristics
o Environmental factors
SOCIAL SUPPORT: both tangible and intangible support a person receives from other people.
1- Severity of the disease:
• People with severe life threatening illnesses will be highly motivated to adhere to regimens that
protect them against such outcomes. Not very much evidence here though.
2- Treatment Characteristics:
• Characteristics of the treatment such as:
o Side effects of the medication – those who experience or have concerns about side
effects are less likely to take their medications than thow who do not have such
concerns.
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o Complexity of the treatment – the greater number of doses or variety of medications
people must take, the greater likelihood they will not take the pills prescribed.
3- Personal Characteristics:
• Age: harder for children to adhere since they don’t understand, and old age same.
• Gender: men and women are about equal in adhering
• Personality Patterns: people with certain personality patterns have low adherence rates.
• Emotional factors: People who experience stress and emotional problems also have difficulties
adhering.
4- Environmental Factors:
o Economic factors
o Social support
o Cultural norms
1- Economic Factors:
• Of all the demographics socioeconomic factors such as education and income, most strongly
related to adherence.
2- Social Support:
• A level of social support one received from family and friends is a strong predictor of adherence.
3- Cultural Norms:
• Cultural beliefs and norms have a powerful effect not only on rates of adherence but also on
what constitutes adherence.
Researchers have identified dozens of factors, each of which shows some relation to adherence. Many
of these factors account for a very small amount of variation in adhering to medical advice. Some of
these factors are statistically significant, but when considered individually they are poor predictors on
who will adhere.
Why and how do people adhere to healthy behaviors?
2 theories: Continuum theories and stage theories.
CONTINUUM THEORIES: seek to explain adherence with a single set of factors that should appl equally
to all people regardless of their existing levels of motivations for adhering.
• Health belief model: beliefs are an important aspect to health behavior.
o 1- perceived susceptibility to disease or disability
o 2- perceived severity of the disease
o 3- perceived benefits of health enhancing behaviors
o 4- perceived barriers to health enhancing behaviors
• Self-efficacy theory:
o People's beliefs in their capacity to exercise some measure of control over their own
functioning and over environmental effects.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Adherence: a person"s ability and willingness to follow recommended health practices. Or the extent to which a person"s behavior coincides with medical or health advice. 6- use a combo of these procedures: no one of these procedures is both reliable and valid. When accuracy is crucial, using two or more of these methods yields greater accuracy than reliance on a single technique: the frequency of non adherence depends on the nature of the illness. People are more likely to adhere to a medication regimen than to a program that changes health related aspects. The average non-adherence is slightly less than 25%: barriers include, difficulty of altering lifestyles of long duration, inadequate practitioner-patient communications and erroneous beliefs as to what advice patients should follow. What factors affect adherence: personal characteristics and environmental factors. Also specific health beliefs that are more easily modifiable: severity of the disease, treatment characteristics, personal characteristics, environmental factors.
