Elkin R. Isaac Student Research Symposium

The 20th annual Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

Using Gender Differences in Lay-Representations of Coronary Heart Disease to Predict Health Behaviors
Norris 102, 10:00 AM

Kristin Sparschu, '09 46
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Bloomfield Hills, MI

Sponsor(s): Mary Jenson
Support: FURSCA

Abstract:
All individuals hold representations that allow them to interpret and understand their experiences with illness. The common sense model (Leventhal, Nerenz, & Steele, 1984) outlines five dimensions examining how individuals make sense of their symptoms, assess health risks, and formulate an action plan for coping with their current illness. Weinman & Petrie’s (1997) developed the Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ) to go beyond coping with an illness as the main dependent variable and to gain better insight on the interrelationship of Leventhal’s five dimensions. Recent research conducted by Figueiras & Alves (2007) used the IPQ-RH to study the illness perceptions of healthy individuals regarding AIDS, skin cancer, and tuberculosis. However, their study did not examine gender differences nor does it examine the perceptions of a more predominate illness, such as coronary artery disease. The present study investigates individuals’ perceptions of coronary heart disease, the gender differences in lay-representations for the illness, and the association between reported health behaviors. To investigate these relationships, a modified version of the IPQ-RH and a health behavior survey were used to survey participants. The modified IPQ-RH and a health behavior questionnaire completed online. The participants were recruited by a non-profit service that sends recruitment/reminder messages to individuals who have explicitly agreed to participate in web-based research studies. The IPQ-RH dimensions account for a significant portion of the variance in health behaviors. Moreover, the gender differences found in the illness representations may partially explain gender variations in the trajectories for this illness.