Still Healthy? Personal Stories of Procrastination

Abstract

Background: The focal concept of this study is procrastination. The author examines the experience of 35-44 years old men in terms of their health related procrastination behaviour. Currently delays in seeking help from medical practitioners are an increasing problem in Latvia, especially among 35-44 years old men (Centre of Health Economics, 2010). Any failure in primary and secondary prevention creates a number of negative consequences. Nevertheless, aforementioned group often avoids medical treatment. The aim of the study was understand the experience of procrastination of this group in qualitative terms. Method: Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 men aged 35-44 were conducted. Data were analyzed by means of inductive thematic analysis. Findings: The following dominant dimensions emerged: (1) understanding of one's own health from the time perspective; (2) models of the relationship to the medical practitioner; (3) cultural aspects of procrastination behaviour. Discussion: There are two main concepts - time discounting and task aversion - that bring together the experience of procrastination for the studied group.