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Lay beliefs on illness and compliance to health care regimens.
Ridder, D.T.D. de, Bensing, J. Lay beliefs on illness and compliance to health care regimens. Patient Education and Counseling: 1998, 34(Suppl.1), p. S79. Abstract.
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Introduction. Compliance is difficult to attain. Traditional explanations of non-compliance rely heavily on a rationalist approach of patients’ health behavior and focus almost exclusively on enhancing patient’s acceptance of doctors’ views by improved patient education. However, as yet these approaches have failed in enhancing compliance. An alternative explanation of non-compliance is found in the discrepancy of doctors’ accounts and patients’ explanatory models of illness - i.e. in the fact that doctors’ accounts do not match the beliefs patients hold about their illness. These lay beliefs, mostly addressed in terms of illness representations refer to the way individuals conceptualize and make sense of an illness. It has been hypothesized that incongruence between practitioner’s and client’s explanatory models would be negatively associated with patient’s compliance as well as patient satisfaction and subsequent use of health care facilities. This hypothesis is partly confirmed by empirical evidence: lay beliefs of illness have been demonstrated to differ from practitioners’ views of disease. However, research is lacking when it comes to account for this discrepancy as a factor in non-compliance. In this paper, a theoretical overview of this topic will be provided - illustrated with findings from a pilot study. Methods. Findings of a pilot experiment for a study on the medical acknowledgement of lay beliefs as a critical factor in enhancing compliance will be presented. In the experiment, students will be asked to describe their experiences with a common cold. Then a confederate will provide a prescription how to manage the complaint. The prescription will be delivered in three different conditions varying in the degree of acknowledgement of lay beliefs and in a control condition. Measures of illness beliefs, expectations of consultation, coping style in a medical situation, general tendency to adhere as well intention to comply will be taken. Results/Conclusions. Results are available by the end of 1997. (aut. ref.)
Introduction. Compliance is difficult to attain. Traditional explanations of non-compliance rely heavily on a rationalist approach of patients’ health behavior and focus almost exclusively on enhancing patient’s acceptance of doctors’ views by improved patient education. However, as yet these approaches have failed in enhancing compliance. An alternative explanation of non-compliance is found in the discrepancy of doctors’ accounts and patients’ explanatory models of illness - i.e. in the fact that doctors’ accounts do not match the beliefs patients hold about their illness. These lay beliefs, mostly addressed in terms of illness representations refer to the way individuals conceptualize and make sense of an illness. It has been hypothesized that incongruence between practitioner’s and client’s explanatory models would be negatively associated with patient’s compliance as well as patient satisfaction and subsequent use of health care facilities. This hypothesis is partly confirmed by empirical evidence: lay beliefs of illness have been demonstrated to differ from practitioners’ views of disease. However, research is lacking when it comes to account for this discrepancy as a factor in non-compliance. In this paper, a theoretical overview of this topic will be provided - illustrated with findings from a pilot study. Methods. Findings of a pilot experiment for a study on the medical acknowledgement of lay beliefs as a critical factor in enhancing compliance will be presented. In the experiment, students will be asked to describe their experiences with a common cold. Then a confederate will provide a prescription how to manage the complaint. The prescription will be delivered in three different conditions varying in the degree of acknowledgement of lay beliefs and in a control condition. Measures of illness beliefs, expectations of consultation, coping style in a medical situation, general tendency to adhere as well intention to comply will be taken. Results/Conclusions. Results are available by the end of 1997. (aut. ref.)