Patient experiences of cardiovascular disease (CVD) screening and understanding of CVD risk

McNaughton, Rebekah, Shucksmith, Janet and Steven, Alison (2012) Patient experiences of cardiovascular disease (CVD) screening and understanding of CVD risk. In: The British Sociological Association Medical Sociology 44th Annual Conference, 5-7 September 2012, Leicester, UK.

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Abstract

This paper draws on evidence from a study that explored patient compliance with the Department of Health’s (DH) NHS Health Check (NHSHC)Programme. In 2009 the DH introduced a national screening programme for adults aged 40-74 for risk of cardiovascular disease. The success of the NHSHC
programme is reliant on sustained patient compliance with drug treatments and lifestyle advice offered to those with a greater than 20% chance of having ‘an adverse event’ in the next ten years. Thus, unusually for a screening programme, it facilitates the identification of potential risk rather than existing conditions.
This has serious implications in terms of patient understanding and compliance.
Sociology offers tools to frame thinking around how patients take on board information about their health and evaluate their risk of illness. This paper presents findings from qualitative interviews with patients (N=30) across the Tees Valley, who were identified as ‘high risk’, had been given lifestyle advice and in many cases prescribed medication to reduce risk factors. In order to engage with the NHSHC programme patients need to interpret risk so that they will perceive a problem that they want to address. In this paper we will explore the views and experiences of patients as they engage with the concept of risk. We will discuss how patients perceive risk in relation to their everyday lives, self-identity and how they understand risk in the context of their current health status. We will explore how patients use lay epidemiology to frame their understanding of risk.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects: B900 Others in Subjects allied to Medicine
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Ay Okpokam
Date Deposited: 28 Jan 2013 12:52
Last Modified: 12 Oct 2019 15:25
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/11056

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