?The definition of delay behaviour is the act of one postponing seeking medical care for the symptoms that he or she is having.
In delay behaviour, a sequence of four stages will happen. The first stage is also known as appraisal delay. The definition of appraisal delay is the time taken by one to understand that the symptom that he or she is facing is a sign of an illness. During this stage of delay, the greatest impact that might result the person to take action is the sensory experience of the symptom.
This means that if the symptom is not that severe and it does not affect the person much, he or she would more likely not take any action and might just dismiss the symptom. However, if the symptom is severe and it is affecting the person from doing his or her daily activities, he or she would acknowledge the symptom for an illness. An example of an appraisal delay is a female who experienced abdominal bloating and she dismissed the symptom because she thought that it was nothing major and that it was just premenstrual syndrome, which is a common condition that females might face. However, as time passed by, she realized that the abdominal bloating did not subside. Instead, she also felt slight pain in her abdominal area which caused her to be unable to go for her work. Thereafter, she interpreted that the symptom was serious.
The second stage is also known as illness delay. The definition of illness delay is the time taken between acknowledging that one is ill and deciding to seek medical care. During this stage of delay, the greatest impact that might result the person to take action is the thoughts that he or she might have about the symptom. This means that if the symptom experienced was not common for him or her and if he or she did not think that much about it and the possible consequences, he or she would decide to seek medical care more quickly. Continuing from the previous example mentioned for appraisal delay, an example of illness delay is that the female realized that something is wrong with her health and the symptom is an indication of an illness.
Since the symptom that she experienced was quite common for her, she might not want to seek medical care as quickly. Also, she might have thought too much about the consequences and this made her not sure about wanting to seek for treatment or not. The third stage is also known as behavioural delay. The definition of behavioural delay is the time taken for one to decide to seek treatment and actually doing so. During this stage of delay, one might already know that he or she needs to seek treatment for the symptom experienced.
However, he or she might procrastinate or has no time to go to the clinic to seek treatment, he or she could might also be scared and afraid of the implications. Also following the previous example mentioned, an example of behavioural delay can be that the female has a heavy workload due to the previous times that she did not go for work. Thus, she was unable to find time to go to the clinic even though she has decided to seek treatment for the symptom that she had experienced. The fourth stage is also known as medical delay. The definition of medical delay is the time taken between one’s calling for the appointment and him or her actually receiving appropriate medical help. During this stage of delay, there might be a queue for patients receiving medical help for that particular illness and this would result in one waiting for days or even months for his or her turn to receive the medical help. Also, one might miss his or her appointment due to busy schedule or last-minute plans and thus, not being able to receive the medical help.
An example for medical delay can be that the female went to a hospital that offers subsidies for their patients to seek treatment for her symptom. Since the hospital offers subsidies, there would definitely be more patients going to seek treatments from them because of cheaper cost. Thus, this would result her to be placed in the waiting list for the treatment that she wanted to seek. The first possible cause of the delay can be stress. Stress can influence the perception of symptoms. Those who might be having recent life stressor or chronic stressor along with symptoms that are ambiguous, would think that they are experiencing the symptoms due to the stressors that they are facing. Thus, they would not care much about the symptoms and they would focus more on the problems that they already are having. The second possible cause of the delay can be coping style or personality.
For procrastinators and those who use denial as a coping strategy, they are more likely to postpone seeking treatment for the symptoms which can be seemed as not that serious and not clear. This is because they would not realize the seriousness of the symptom until it gets worse.
