Patients’ health locus of control and preferences about the role that they want to play in the medical decision-making process

ABSTRACT

Health locus of control (HLOC) may influence people’s behavior regarding their health as well as their desires to be involved in the medical decision-making. Our study aimed to examine HLOC’s relations with people’s control preferences about the medical decision-making. A total of 153 people filled out the self-administered version of the Control Preference Scale and the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale – form C. The most preferred role is the collaborative one. However, HLOC explained heterogeneity in people’s control preferences: lower scores in external HLOC were related to a greater preference for the active and the collaborative role. From the personalized medicine perspective, an accurate evaluation of the patient’s HLOC could help tailoring the decision-making process within the clinical context.

KEYWORDS:

• Health locus of control
• control preferences
• shared decision-making
• medical decision-making

Acknowledgments

GM, LV, and SFMP are PhD students within the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM).

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest to declare

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, G.M., upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the Italian Ministry of Health with Ricerca Corrente and 5 × 1000 funds.