Health Diary Self-Study Term Project: Health Diary Report

Health Diary Self-Study Term Project: Health Diary Report
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Health Diary Self-Study Term Project: Health Diary Report
Introduction
Personal interviews and medical records have traditionally been used as data sources for interpreting health indicators among Americans. Nevertheless, according to Verbrugge (1980), such indicators only provide a limited perspective of morbidity, disability, and largely therapeutic health actions. From these sources, acute and chronic conditions are only given precedence when they cause medical attention or restraint in activities. Given the multidimensional nature of health, such a limited perspective has led health sociologists to view therapeutic interventions as an iceberg of health care (Verbrugge, 1985). The observation that many health problems are resolved through self-care, which is preventive rather than curative, has necessitated the use of health diaries to obtain a holistic picture of morbidity, short- and long-term disability, and health actions that reflect individuals’ health experiences. While diaries have long been employed in consumer expenditure surveys as well as in other studies, sociological health researchers have also found them invaluable in methodologic studies comparing levels of reporting for both prospective and retrospective procedures, memory aids, and as primary sources of data (Verbugge, 1980). Past studies have involved respondents keeping health diaries for 14 days (Hickey et al., 1991), 28 days (Roghmann & Haggerty, 1972), or 4 weeks (Freer, 1990; Gijsbers van Wijk et al., 1999). Others, such as Verbrugge (1985), required respondents comprising of a community sample of adults to maintain daily health records for 6 weeks. Although there are differences between these studies, they all employed health diaries as one of the primary data sources. Using data collected through my health diary form, this report illustrates the basic concepts such as the multidimensional nature of health, the process of health status designation, the iceberg of health care, and the dimensions of self-care concerning the assigned course readings.
Summary
This section of the health diary report summarizes the week-long health diary self-study to illustrate the dimensions of health and self-care. The findings show my health status and behaviors’ social, psychological, and physical dimensions. The questions in the form operationalize or measure course concepts from both socioeconomics and medical perspectives. In the first section on background, the questions operationalize gender, life course stage or age, marital status, ethnicity, occupation, and location. Data from the diary form indicates that I am a Nigerian, single female aged 21, and my occupation is a sales lady living in an urban area. Medical background questions measure medical course concepts such as injury or disease, medical history, allergies, smoking and drinking behaviors, and physical and spiritual health. Data from the diary form shows that I have no long-term health problems, but I sustained a recent hand injury from a skin peel after hitting my hand on a box. Besides, my parents have no medical history, neither do I have any allergies to any medications. Health behavioral and spiritual data show that I only drink but not smoke. Moreover, I go to the gym twice a week and pray every morning. Information on the socioeconomic and medical background is critical as it affects the interpretations of data and the general outcomes of individual health.
The diary form has global self-rated health questions that measure physical health as a health dimension. Questions such as mood operationalize the psychological and social dimensions of health. From the health diary, on a scale of 1 to 5, I rated myself as doing fairly fine mentally, and that weather largely affected my mood on that day of the week, which made me anxious. The global self-rated health questions indicate that health is multidimensional as understood by health sociologists from the perspective of social, physical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions. For instance, the pattern shows that that day’s weather partly caused my anxiety, thus not feeling mentally excellent. These resulted in self-care behaviors such as trying to meet new people actively and talking to a friend to address the psychological feelings. The symptom chart contains questions that connect what we learned in the course and various sick-role behaviors that can be observed from the health diary form. There are reactive and restorative sick-role or self-care behaviors. The most important concept in the symptom chart is the process of health status designation, as explained by Twaddle (1974) and Segall and Fries (2017). Physical symptoms include pain, while stress is often psychological.
The next section of the health diary form has questions relevant to regular or routine self-care behaviors such as having a sufficient sleep, taking a balanced diet with fruits included in meals, cleaning compounds, taking body self-examination, brushing teeth, having meditations, and other activities. On the daily routines, data shows that I slept for four hours on that particular day, did not have fruits in my meal, and never had a balanced diet. However, I brushed my teeth twice a day and cleaned my surrounding twice a week, but I did not self-examine my body. As a way of self-care, I meditate every time I am stressed, shower, and dress based on the daily weather. I weigh myself once a month, go to the gym twice a week, and take three bottles of water per day. Nevertheless, I spent 6 hours on social media that day and did not have time to go to the gym. While I prayed that specific day, I did not perform any weightlifting but practiced safe sex. The last section of the forms asks about the health actions I took on that day to reduce the risks of injuries and illnesses. The questions in this section connect to the course concept of preventative self-care and indicate that I have not made efforts to track the amount of sugar I consume not have I tried to avoid soda and other sugary drinks. I have not also gone for my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but I do wear a mask and practice social distancing as a way of self-care behaviors.
Health Status Designation Interpretation
This section of the report offers an interpretation of the information about stability and change in health status using my data to illustrate my process of health status designation with direct reference to Twaddle’s (1974) reading. Here, I will interpret health diary information in the form by providing a summary of the information contained about specific health behaviors, illness behaviors, and sick role behaviors. The report also provides an interpretation of the information as evidence of the process of health status designation based on Twaddle (1974) and Segall and Fries (2017). Segall and Fries (2017) have conceptualized wellness and sickness as separate dimensions but intersecting aspects that define health. In an illustration of this concept using double-sided arrows, the authors have shown how ill-health and good health are discrete but interrelated dimensions. In their perspective, Segall and Fries (2017) argue that wellness and sickness should not be viewed as the opposite, and it is important to understand the health-promoting factors to understand the mystery of health. These factors contribute to disease onset and an individual’s experiences of illness. In the illustration, Segall and Fries (2017) identify the good health and ill health (sickness) dimensions. The good health dimension consists of being fit, feeling healthy, and having the social capacity to achieve an individual’s goals. On the other side, ill health or sickness dimension are experiences of illnesses or the presence of disease. In some cases, the ill health dimension may result in death based on the severity or nature of the disease (Segall and Fries, 2017). Besides ill health and good health, the illustration also identifies normal health as a combination of both ill-health and good health. Segall and Fries (2017) view the experiences of illnesses and the presence of disease, in some circumstances, as part of normal health. For example, having a runny nose is one of the most familiar symptoms that people experience every day but still, feel like part of normal health. Other examples of ill-health situations that are perceived as normal health include childhood illnesses and geriatric diseases due to their increasing prevalence. According to Twaddle (1974), good health and ill health form a complex of ongoing social...