Egan, Helen

Keyte, Rebecca

Mantzios, Michail

BCU Open Access

The Role of Health Beliefs in Predicting and Explaining Risky HealthBehaviours within Cystic FibrosisAuthors : Rebecca Keyte, Helen Egan, Michail MantziosAbstract : It is well acknowledged that ongoing adherence is a major concern within CF. However recently literature hasindicated that non-adherence should not be viewed just in terms of medical regimens. There are other damaging behavioursthat some chronically ill patients engage in which can be viewed as a form of non-adherence, such as risky behaviours. Riskybehaviours are a major concern within CF, as they can have adverse health effects on patients regardless of patients adherenceto  medical  regimens.  The  risky  behaviours  this  research  is  predominantly  focusing  on  are  smoking,  excessive  alcoholconsumption, illicit drug use and risky sexual behaviour. This research investigates patient’s beliefs about their CF and theimpact their CF has upon their life, exploring rationales for why some patients engage in risky behaviours. This researchutilises qualitative semi-structured interviews taking an interpretive perspective. Twenty-four adult participants have beenrecruited (16 male, age range 19–66 yrs) from two UK regional CF centres, with a median FEV1 61.77% predicted. Participantswere recruited via clinician guidance, with 13 participants identified by clinicians as partaking in risky behaviours. However,during the interviews 17 participants were identified as partaking in risky behaviours, illustrating that not all patients offer fulldisclosure of engagement in such behaviours to their clinicians. Preliminary findings illustrate a variety of reasons as to whysome CF patients engage in risky behaviours, with many participants stating that one challenge in terms of living with CF isaccepting their illness. Disclosure of illness was also an issue, the desire to be seen as ‘normal’ was important to many. It isoften possible for CF patients to hide their illness as they do not always appear to be unwell. However, literature indicates adesire for normalcy can be accompanied with the engagement of normalised risky behaviours, enabling patients to retaliateagainst  their  illness  identity.  There  was  also  evidence of  a  life-orientated perspective  amongst  participants,  with  somereporting that their desire for fun and enjoyment was the reason for why they were engaging in risky behaviours. Someparticipants did not acknowledge the impact their risky behaviours could have upon their CF, and others rationalised theircontinuation with the behaviours by suggesting that they were in fact beneficial to their health. There was an apparent lack ofknowledge around the implications of risky behaviours, with participants indicating that they had not been informed of suchpotential consequences by their clinicians. Given the adverse health effects of risky behaviours within CF, more effective healthpromotion measures are needed to both reduce and more importantly prevent these behaviours. Due to the initiation of riskybehaviours within the CF population commonly occurring during adolescence, the researcher now proposes to conduct semi-structured interviews with paediatric patients to investigate their awareness and beliefs towards risky behaviours. Overall, thisresearch will highlight reasons why some CF patients engage in risky behaviours, in order to inform interventions aimed toprevent the initiation in risky behaviours by increasing patient awareness.Keywords : cystic fibrosis, health beliefs, preliminary findings, risky health behavioursConference Title : ICCF 2016 : 18th International Conference on Cystic FibrosisConference Location : London, United KingdomConference Dates : May 23-24, 2016 World Academy of Science, Engineering and TechnologyInternational Journal of Medical and Health SciencesVol:10, No:5, 2016International Science Index, Medical and Health Sciences Vol:10, No:5, 2016 waset.org/abstracts/46440dai.waset.org/1307-6892/46440International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 10(5) 2016 1

The Role of Health Beliefs in Predicting and Explaining Risky Health Behaviours within Cystic Fibrosis

Birmingham City University Open Access Repository

http://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/4671/1/Keyte%2C%20Egan%2C%20%26%20Mantzios%20%282016%29.pdf

The Role of Health Beliefs in Predicting and Explaining Risky Health Behaviours within Cystic Fibrosis

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

BCU Open Access

Birmingham City University Open Access Repository