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
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