Respond to at least one peer by supporting agreement or polite disagreement and adding additional information and ideas to further the discussion.( write me up a paragraph responding to this post below ).
Discuss how threatening the farmers perceive skin cancer to be
The perception of threat according to the PMT is determined by the perceived severity and susceptibility (Hayden, 2019). However, if they feel some level of reward from not adopting the preventative behavior, that will counter the impact of the perceived severity and vulnerability. The farmers in the study were questioned on these three factors. Of all the variables measured in the study, the lowest score went to the perceived susceptibility (15.45%) and 88.2% of the participants disagreed with the statement declaring that their job made them susceptible to skin cancer. Their perception of severity proved to be low because 94.1% of the participants disagreed with the statement that skin cancer could lead to deformities in their facial appearance. On the other hand, 88.7% perceived that they would obtain the reward of more effective work without wearing protective covering over their heads (Babazadeh, Nadrian, Banayejeddi, & Rezapour, 2017). These results of the study show that their thread appraisal of skin cancer is significantly low.
Use the farmers’ coping appraisal to explain their skin cancer protective behaviors
Coping appraisal is how a person values a behavior based on its effectiveness, personal ability to carry out the behavior, and cost (Hayden, 2019). Almost 68% of the participants believed that sunscreen did not help prevent skin cancer showing that they did not have a strong believe in the effectiveness of the behavior. As a contrast to that, when it came to wearing protective clothes, they found themself to posses the personal ability to engage on that behavior. Finally, the self-perceived income level played a role in the application of sunscreen. The perceived cost of the sunscreen played a role in the adaptation of the behavior. Another form of cost that was reflected on the study was the social influence on behavior. 31.5% of farmers in the study believed that they would be mocked if they wore sunscreen and this was determined to be a significant negative predictor of the behavior (Babazadeh, Nadrian, Banayejeddi, & Rezapour, 2017). Even though the farmers had a good sense of self-efficacy, when it came to the actual application of the behavior, they tended not to do it. this shows that the other factors mentioned in this paragraph had a heavier weight on the decision to adopt preventive behaviors.
Analyze what suggestions the authors made regarding the focus of the interventions to reduce skin cancer
The recommendations made by the researchers include having educational interventions promoting health literacy, increasing farmers’ knowledge about their susceptibility to skin cancer, and providing them with cool uniforms made from cotton (Babazadeh, Nadrian, Banayejeddi, & Rezapour, 2017). Increasing the knowledge of the farmers in regards to skin cancer and its prevention should lead to an increased understanding of the severity and vulnerability of the disease. Increasing the perceived magnitude of this two might help counter the rewards that they perceive to receive from not adopting preventive behaviors. Educational interventions will also help farmers understand better efficacy of adopting skin cancer preventive behaviors and help decrease the impact that the risk of being mucked has on them. But education by itself will not change their financial ability to adopt the new behavior. That is why providing them with cool uniforms adequate to protect them from the sun is a great recommendation to help them increase their perception of self-efficacy while also decreasing their perception of the cost of adopting the behavior.
Assess what ways, if any, were your threat and/or coping appraisal responses the same as those of the farmers? Do you think the suggested intervention foci would be effective?
When considering the skin cancer preventive behaviors, I put myself on the situation of going to the beach knowing that I will have more sun exposure than normally. Unlike the farmers in the study, I feel like I have a good perception of susceptibility of the association of sun exposure to skin cancer and I do believe that wearing sunscreen and protective clothes helps prevent skin cancer. However, I do share the fact that the cost of the behavior affects my decision of participating in it. If I find that buying sunscreen is too expensive for my budget, I decide to risk being exposed to the Sun without sunscreen. Also, I have been influence by the social pressure in the sense that if no one in a group wears sunscreen, I choose to do the same as the rest of the group. Most of the interventions proposed in the study would not be effective in increasing my adaptation of preventive behaviors given that my exposure to sun does not occur in the same situation as with the farmers. Since it is not work related, uniform provision from an employer would not change my behavior. I have a good general understanding of the effectiveness of the prevention behavior, so the educational focus that would have a bigger impact on me would be one focused on my personal vulnerability.
Resources
Babazadeh, T., Nadrian, H., Banayejeddi, M., & Rezapour, B. (2017). Determinants of Skin Cancer Preventive Behaviors Among Rural Farmers in Iran: an Application of Protection Motivation Theory. Journal of Cancer Education : The Official Journal of the American Association for Cancer Education, 32(3), 604–612.
Hayden, J. (2019). Introduction to health behavior theory (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
