Coping and compliance in coronary patients : an acculturation study

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dc.contributor.authorSteele, Robert William Seanen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-15T18:25:43Z
dc.date.available2024-08-15T18:25:43Z
dc.date.copyright1986en_US
dc.date.issued1986
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Anthropology
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThis is a study of the impact of a heart attack upon patients. The study examines the process by which a patient comes to terms with the condition, and what happens when they cannot. When a person enters a treatment situation in an established medical structure (such as a clinical setting), he or she must adapt to that structure. This intense and continuous contact between the patient and the professional as representatives of different sub-cultures often results in a change in the patient through an acculturative process. An effective treatment situation requires that the explanatory models used by both the patient and the professional must be in accord. If the explanatory model of the patient does not agree with the biomedical model of the health care professional, the patient must choose which model to follow. This may create a classic double-bind of conflicting assumptions in which the patient must either disregard personal beliefs to follow the biomedical model, or must follow personal beliefs and thus be non-compliant, which also may violate a personal belief in complying with 'the doctor's orders'. Thirteen subjects participated in this study. The patients were selected according to a criteria of first MI (myocardial infarction), under age-65, and resident of the Victoria region. The research was conducted from May 1st, to September 30th, 1985. Subjects were interviewed using standard participant observation techniques. Questions asked were open ended to allow for the greatest degree of freedom for the patient's description. Questions were aimed at eliciting the patients explanatory model, coping strategy and belief structure concerning the condition. This was then compared with the standard biomedical model as found in the coronary care rehabilitation programme of the Royal Jubilee Hospital. Results were interpreted in terms of a distinction drawn between disease (the specific etiology of a condition) and illness (a cultural concept). The programme gives the patients the technical information of the disease, whereas the patients are more concerned with their illness problems; how their condition will affect their lives. Consequently, the programme does not address an important aspect of the concerns and feelings of the patients. This study also indicates the advantage found in applying anthropological research methods to elicit the patient's point-of-view. Recommendations concerning treatment which takes the patient's point of view into account are made at the conclusion of the thesis.en
dc.format.extent181 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/19784
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectUN SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutionsen
dc.titleCoping and compliance in coronary patients : an acculturation studyen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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