Explain The Four Stages Of Delay Behavior

When a person is first conscious of the symptoms he or she experience at that point of time but refuses to seek treatment immediately and live with it for months is often referred to as delay behavior. For example, a person is experiencing shortness of breath. The person may perceive it as a common symptom as it may be due to fatigue and decide to ignore until the condition become severe and worsen then they will decide to take action by seeking medical treatment.

There are four stages of delay behavior. They are appraisal delay, illness delay, behavioral delay and medical delay.

Appraisal delay is when an individual takes time to recognize that the symptoms experienced are serious and is a sign of possible illness. For example, a person
who has been coughing and treat the sickness lightly without giving a thought of the possibilities of the sickness. However, when the coughing has been going on for a few weeks and has not been improving, that is where they realize that it may suggest some serious illnesses.

Illness delay is which the time it takes for an individual to make up his or her minds that the symptom indicates an illness to the day he decided to seek medical treatment.
For example, when the person coughing conditions becomes worsen to the point of coughing up blood, which is when the person decided to seek help from the healthcare provider.

Behavioral delay is which the time it takes between the choice to seek medical treatment and actually doing so such as taking action by booking an appointment. For example, the person booked an appointment to have himself/herself checked by the doctor based on the symptoms.

Lastly, medical delay is which the time goes by between the person’s booking for an appointment and receiving the required medical treatment. For example, the person turns up for the appointment and received the services at the hospital.

The likely causes of delay are firstly financial status. Those who fall under the lower income group are most likely to delay as they could not afford to pay the expensive medical treatment. For common symptoms such as running nose and cough, they may choose to do self-treatment. They may have the mindset that it can be cure by itself without having to see help from professionals due to past experience in order to save costs instead of going to the nearest polyclinics, private clinics or
hospitals.

They will only seek immediate treatment when their condition did not get any better or lead to other complications such as when their life is at risk. Those who fall under the high income group will be able to afford to seek medical treatment immediately due to the stability of their income.

Secondly is knowledge and understanding of disease. Some people may have lack of knowledge about diseases due to their education or awareness level. They may not know how serious the illnesses can get and the risks that they may face. For example, delay in treatment can make things more complicated which results in longer time for the illness to be treated.

Thirdly,