Christina M. Harding

Smoking, seat-belt use and perception of health risks☆

As part of a study of perception of risks involved in health-related activities, 159 students (aged 16-21 years) rated 15 such activities in terms of perceived benefit, perceived risk, perceived likelihood of mishap and acceptability of present level of risk. After exclusion of 28 ex-smokers, subjects were classified into smokers vs. non-smokers, users vs. non-users of seat-belts, males vs. females and first-borns vs. later borns. There were various sex differences but few effects of birth order. Smokers tended to see a less unfavourable trade-off in terms of benefits as against risks for cigarette smoking than did non-smokers. This generalized to their ratings of pot smoking and alcoholic drinks. Non-users of seat-belts were distinguishable from users mainly in seeing greater risk and likelihood of mishap in preventive health measures such as vaccination.

Perceptions and beliefs about nine diseases

Abstract A questionnaire concerning beliefs and perceptions about each of nine prevalent and/ortopical diseases was administered to 216 students to establish the current “public image” and level of knowledge about the diseases and their prevention. The nine diseases were: heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, tuberculosis, whooping cough, polio, German measles, influenza and multiple sclerosis. The results indicated that each disease had a characteristic and specific image. These images were generally accurate, although certain areas of ignorance were located. The communicable diseases were seen as preventable by vaccination and this was seen as the responsibility of medics. Heart disease and stroke were seen as being associated with the general behavioural combination of lack of exercise, consummatory excesses and smoking, whilst lung cancer was seen as being associated primarily with smoking. The responsibility for prevention of these latter three diseases was not seen to belong to medics. The implications of the results for health education and disease prevention arediscussed.

A psychometric investigation of two measures of Type A behaviour in a British sample

Item-total correlations and principal components factor analyses were carried out on the responses of British males to the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) and the Framingham Scale (FRAM). The two male subject groups aged between 35 and 65 years, consisting of 150 and 58 men respectively, took part. The results indicated that neither Type A scale was particularly reliable, as measured by Cronbachs alpha coefficient (JAS alpha = 0.54 for the larger subject group and 0.39 for the smaller; FRAM alpha = 0.68 for the larger group and 0.61 for the smaller). The factor analyses indicated that a single factor was being measured by the scales, but that the amount of variance unaccounted for was large (83% for the JAS and 68% for the FRAM using the larger subject group). It is concluded that the JAS and Framingham Type A scales appear unsuitable for assessing Type A behaviour in individuals. The advantages of questionnaire measures of Type A behaviour generally are discussed and possible improvements to the existing scales are suggested.

The Perceived Relationship Between Smoking, Obesity and Cause of Death

AbstractThree hundred members of the general public participated in a study of peoples intuitive conceptions of the effects of smoking and obesity. Smoking was generally associated with increased risk of lung cancer, heart disease and pneumonia. Non-smokers placed more emphasis upon lung cancer relative to heart disease than smokers did, and saw smokers as being more at risk from lung cancer than the smokers saw themselves. Obesity was only associated with increased risk of heart disease. It is recommended that health educators stress the wide variety of risks to which smokers expose themselves and inform the public about the other circulatory diseases associated with obesity.Social psychological studies of health behaviours have typically been concerned with peoples attitudes, attributions of causality and decisions about health issues. In contrast, this paper explores peoples schemata surrounding smoking, obesity and various causes of death. A schema refers to a cognitive knowledge structure comprise...

A note on the Jenkins activity survey

Abstract The responses of 150 British policemen and 58 administrators to the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) were scored by an interviewer, trained in the use of the Structured Interview (SI), giving each S a point each time the most Type A response for each question was selected. These scores, together with a similarly calculated Type B score, were compared with the Type A assessments made by the SI and the Framingham Type A Scale. The newly scored JAS responses were also factor analysed. The results indicated that different assessments between the SI and the JAS were unlikely to be caused by sub-optimal scoring of the JAS. The factor analysis of the JAS responses failed to find a stable underlying structure. The implications of these results for the measurement of Type A behaviour are discussed.

A psychometric investigation of the content of the structured interview

Abstract The responses of 92 British males to the questions of the Structured Interview (SI) were content analysed. The consistency of the content in measuring a single concept was investigated by means of item and factor analyses. A simple, unweighted sum of the content ratings was then compared with the scores achieved on the three prospectively validated Type A measures—the Jenkins Activity Survey, the Framingham Scale and the SI. The results from the analyses suggest that the content of the SI has many similarities with the questionnaire assessments of Type A behaviour and is a poor predictor of SI assessment. It is argued that the added dimension of style of response that is considered in the SI is the reason for different assessments being made by the SI and the questionnaire measures of Type A behaviour. The implications for the measurement of Type A behaviour are discussed.

A comparison of the coverage of immunisation by Britain's quality and popular press

THE attention given to and the quality of information provided on the topic of immunisation by Britains quality and popular press were compared. The hypothesis that the availability of information in these two groups of newspapers would follow the same pattern as class inequalities in the take-up of vaccination was shown to be incorrect. In fact, although the level of information and general coverage were poor, the popular press tended to display a more responsible attitude towards vaccination. Hence there was no evidence to suggest that press coverage of immunisation might be one socio-economic factor which might account for the differences in vaccination levels between the different social classes. The implications of these results are discussed with reference to proposals that progress in reducing inequalities in health could be made by encouraging health education.

Social class and environment: their perceived influence on health in Britain

PERCEPTIONS of the health risks thought to be associated with the lower and middle classes and urban and rural environments were investigated. Three hundred subjects were asked to read one of 12 character profiles and answer a series of questions related to their perceptions of the health behaviours, health attitudes and illness susceptibility of the target character. The 12 characters differed in terms of their places of residence (urban/rural) and occupa tions. Subjects were found to have definite ideas of the health risks associated with socio-economic status and the environment and many of their perceptions reflected the official statistics. The implications of the results for the planning of health education programmes are discussed. The impor tance of taking account of the social context in which health decisions are made is emphasised.

Acceptance of Responsibility for Accidents

ABSTRACTDescriptions of 14 hypothetical events were presented to 214 students (average age 15 years). The 14 descriptions were each written in two different ways: in the “commission” condition, each event described was an accident which resulted from an error which was committed by the target person; in the “omission” condition the target person was described as having failed to act in a way which could have prevented the accident. Subjects rated the likelihood of the outcome resulting from the target persons action, the severity of the outcome, and the responsibility of the target person. Regression analyses, treating likelihood and severity as independent variables with sex, smoking status and omission/commission as dummy variables, revealed an overall tendency for more responsibility to be attributed in the commission than the omission condition (although this depended on the specific event considered). There were also positive relationships between responsibility and both likelihood and severity. Mal...