TY - JOUR
KW - Attitude to Health
KW - Causality
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - Male
KW - Patient Acceptance of Health Care
KW - Persuasive Communication
KW - Primary Health Care
KW - Public Health
KW - Questionnaires
KW - Videotape Recording
AU - C. R. Boot
AU - F. J. Meijman
AU - S. van Dulmen
A1 - 
AB - In public and interpersonal health communication, a need exists to explore the nature of lay beliefs about health complaints to achieve effective communication. Beliefs of patients visiting their family physician/general practitioner (GP) may give insight into this matter. The aim of this study was to investigate the spectrum of causes attributed to different categories of health complaints presented at the GP office. Before visiting their GP, 2,253 individuals completed a questionnaire about their health complaint and the cause they attributed to this complaint. The spectrum of causes attributed to all health complaints was compared between distinct categories of health complaints. Sixty-two percent of the GP patients attributed at least 1 cause to health complaints they presented at the GP office. Thirty-eight percent of GP patients did not attribute a cause to the health complaint they presented at the GP office. Patient beliefs differed across distinct health problems. Lay beliefs seemed to differ from basic notions of illness because patients attributed different causes to different health complaints. These differences in beliefs, when patients choose to share them with their GP, may serve as a starting point for the communication between the patients and the GP to achieve an effective communication. A need seems to emerge to discriminate between lay beliefs regarding the nature of specific illnesses and those regarding basic notions. GPs are therefore advised to attend to, or at least ask for, their patients' views specifically.
BT - Health communication
C5 - Medically Unexplained Symptoms
CP - 4
CY - United States
DO - 10.1080/10410230902889373
IS - 4
JF - Health communication
N2 - In public and interpersonal health communication, a need exists to explore the nature of lay beliefs about health complaints to achieve effective communication. Beliefs of patients visiting their family physician/general practitioner (GP) may give insight into this matter. The aim of this study was to investigate the spectrum of causes attributed to different categories of health complaints presented at the GP office. Before visiting their GP, 2,253 individuals completed a questionnaire about their health complaint and the cause they attributed to this complaint. The spectrum of causes attributed to all health complaints was compared between distinct categories of health complaints. Sixty-two percent of the GP patients attributed at least 1 cause to health complaints they presented at the GP office. Thirty-eight percent of GP patients did not attribute a cause to the health complaint they presented at the GP office. Patient beliefs differed across distinct health problems. Lay beliefs seemed to differ from basic notions of illness because patients attributed different causes to different health complaints. These differences in beliefs, when patients choose to share them with their GP, may serve as a starting point for the communication between the patients and the GP to achieve an effective communication. A need seems to emerge to discriminate between lay beliefs regarding the nature of specific illnesses and those regarding basic notions. GPs are therefore advised to attend to, or at least ask for, their patients' views specifically.
PP - United States
PY - 2009
SN - 1532-7027; 1041-0236
SP - 346
EP - 350
EP - 
T1 - Beliefs about the causes of health complaints: a study in primary care
T2 - Health communication
TI - Beliefs about the causes of health complaints: a study in primary care
U1 - Medically Unexplained Symptoms
U2 - 19499428
U3 - 10.1080/10410230902889373
VL - 24
VO - 1532-7027; 1041-0236
Y1 - 2009
ER -