Health procrastination: The experience of 35-44 years old men

Abstract

The focal concept of this study is health procrastination. Delay in seeking help from medical practitioners is an increasing problem in Latvia, particularly with men between the ages of 35-44. Failures in primary and secondary prevention create a number of negative consequences, for instance, longer and more complex treatment; lower recovery prognosis as well as higher treatment costs. Nevertheless, the aforementioned group often avoids medical treatment. The aim of this study was to understand the experience of 35-44 years old men in terms of their health procrastination in qualitative terms. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 48 men within the age range of 35-44 years were conducted. Data was analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The following dominant themes are: delay of health behaviour, time management, motivation emerged during the analysis: conscientiousness, task avoidance, effort, short-term vs. long-term thinking, gains and losses assessment, and time discounting. Conclusions followed: there are three main concepts – personality traits, discounting and task characteristics – that bring together the experience of health procrastination for 35-44 years old males.