Health locus of control, perceived health competence, and satisfaction of patients with rheumatological conditions versus periodic health examination patients

Abstract

Important health management goals include building patient loyalty, predicting patient behavior and adherence, and understanding treatment outcomes. This study focused on health locus of control (HLC), perceived health competence, and satisfaction with care in an outpatient sample by comparing chronic care patients and periodic health examination (PHE) patients in the same clinic. The study sample consisted of 146 adult patients from a rheumatology outpatient clinic. Participants responded to validated measures of psychosocial variables and answered a sociodemographic and health status information form. The findings showed that while both patient groups were similarly satisfied with care, chronic care patients perceived lower levels of health competence and internal HLC and higher levels of chance HLC than PHE patients. Satisfaction with care was negatively associated with chance HLC in the chronic care group, while health competence was negatively associated with chance HLC in the PHE group. The findings of the current study suggest that although chronic care patients were satisfied with care, they had stronger chance beliefs and weaker beliefs about internal factors. Hence, for better management of rheumatological conditions, it is important to focus on improving patients' coping skills through effective health education strategies.