Emily's toe: Vermont women conceptualize health and work through illness

This dissertation examines how individuals conceptualize health and the relationship between what people believe about health and what they do when they get sick. It is based on the premise that health seeking behaviors are driven by an underlying conceptual model of health that the individual learned through social interaction and personal experience.;The research for this study was conducted in a rural community in northwestern Vermont during two fieldwork sessions. Ethnographic data and transcripts of interviews with six women were analyzed to formulate a conceptual model of health for the population studied. This analysis showed the underlying structure of the domain was the same for all those interviewed. As constructed, the model of health had four basic components-doing, positive emotions, values and physical well-being. Each of these features had varying terms reflecting each person's unique life experience.;Results of the analysis showed that when people recognized they were sick their goal was to return to health as conceptualized. Illness recognition occurred when the individual perceived a discrepancy between her view of health and her present experience. This discrepancy was acknowledged when at least two components of health were compromised.;The results of the analysis indicate a strong integrated relationship between what people believe about health, illness recognition and health seeking behaviors. As conceptualized, health is an important goal that people strive to maintain and/or regain. Illness is perceived as an outside object that interferes with their desire for health. This confirms my hypothesis and suggests that if one is to understand what people do when they get sick, one must understand what they believe about health.;This study is significant for several reasons. It shows how a conceptual model of health operates in a situation of illness and in so doing illuminates how an individual makes sense of what she is experiencing. The results of this study has implications for understanding utilization patterns in health care. This information can be used by policy makers as they work on designing health are delivery programs. And, this study is significant because it adds knowledge about health beliefs to medical studies and the health care paradigm.