| Summary: | 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.
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