REPRESENTATIONS OF HEALTH IN PERSONS WITH CHRONIC HEALTH PROBLEMS.
Contributors: University of Minnesota.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 246
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The Theory of Self-regulation (Leventhal & Johnson, 1983) proposes that persons' representations of threat to health control their health regulating behavior. This study's purpose was to describe the representation of threat to health from the participant's perspective, identify the language used and compare the actual representations with the theoretical ones.

Three groups of participants were selected from the health-care system by nonprobability sampling. One group was under treatment for hypertension, one had a serious, chronic, health problem for which no treatment was available, and one was normal. The data were collected in a focused interview. Computer assisted content analysis of the data identified and scored emphasized ideas and underlying social perspective by group. Factor analysis indicated the associated ideas, and a hermeneutical method was used to interpret these themes by group as well as across groups. Peer review supported the interpretations. Discriminant function analysis revealed the differences among the ideas stressed by each group.

Themes emphasized by all three groups of participants included: objective features of the health condition, history of health care, expected outcome of the condition, the experience of their health in the context of their lives, possible regulating actions, and resources needed for health management. In contrast, each of the three groups stressed some unique themes. The chronic group talked about their sadness, the high blood pressure group talked about the control process and the normal group stressed uncertainty about the future.

The conclusion was that the participants' representations of their threat to health are described by the Theory of Self-regulation, but only partially. Other cognitive components are also operative. The themes addressed by the subjects comprise a health assessment of issues salient to the subjects. A model for expanding the theory to include the additional components was proposed and an information processing definition of health was formulated.

References. Leventhal, H., Johnson, J. (1983). Laboratory and field experimentation: Development of a theory of self-regulation. In P. Woolridge, M. H. Schmitt, J. K. Skipper, Jr., & R. C. Leonard (Eds.), Behavior science and nursing theory (pp. 189-262). St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby Co.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: B, page: 3400.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, 1989.

School code: 0130.