The PAPM attempts to explain how a person comes to decisions to take action and how he or she translates that decision into action. Adoption of a new precaution or cessation of a risky behavior requires deliberate steps unlikely to occur outside of conscious awareness. It is often said that elderly women have experienced lack of awareness of the need to regular gynecological screening process. Again, healthcare providers have tried to provide a gynecological cancer screening process for elderly women. There is an article that aimed at using the PAPM model to examine rural elderly women’s gynecological cancer screening practices. Minchew (2015) described all the 7 stages concerning the issue of cancer screening for rural elderly women.
- Stage one: Women unaware of gynecological cancer as a diagnosis.
- Stage two: Most commonly noted various risk-producing behaviors, including sexual promiscuity, and the lack of personal hygiene as risk factors.
- Stage three: Women in this stage feel the need to participate in the gynecological cancer screening.
- Stage Four: Women in this stage were noted to have stopped obtaining routine gynecological cancer screening.
- Stage Five: women decided on the importance of screening.
- Stage six: Women were shown to have been actively participating in the screening.
- Stage seven: Women in this stage voiced their desire to continue the use of screening for cancer.
The results of the research suggested framework approach that transition between stages of the PAPM and happens in sequence and related in part on an indirect change in personal thinking (Weinstein, 1988). I think changes in personal decisions are one of the important deciding factors using the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM).
Minchew, L. A. (2015). Examining Rural Elderly Women’s Gynecological Cancer Screening Practices using the Precaution Adoption Process Model. Journal Of Gynecologic Oncology Nursing, 24(2), 24-34 11p.
Weinstein, N. D. (1988). The precaution adoption process. Health Psychology, 7, 355-386.
