Health Locus of Control, Health Beliefs, and Health Related Behaviors: A Study of Urban Females

Abstract

The present research consisted of three studies. This research aimed to explore the role of health beliefs, knowledge, and education in health related behaviors of urban females. Additionally, it aimed to generate data that can give a direction for action to health policy makers concerned with women’s health. The objective of Study-I was to examine the impact of health locus of control, self efficacy, and education on health related behaviors. The broad level objective was to identify those segments of urban female population that need special attention of health professionals and researchers. The sample comprised 150 urban females, educated and illiterate. The educated and illiterate respondents were found to be significantly different on internal health locus of control/ IHLC, chance health locus of control/ CHLC, and self-efficacy. The educated women were higher than their counterparts on IHLC and self efficacy. The representations of health of the respondents indicated that educated women understood health in a more global sense of well being, whereas the illiterate took health to be more of a physical phenomenon. Years of education were found to be positively correlated with one’s health knowledge and health behaviors. Health knowledge and health behaviors were significantly positively correlated. Self-efficacy was found to have a significant positive correlation with HLC, health knowledge, and health behavior. Study II purported to examine relationship between IHLC and self efficacy with patient’s report for timely or delayed diagnosis. The sample consisted of 60 female heart and cancer patients, timely and delayed diagnosed according to the doctors’ ratings. No significant differences were found between the HLC and self-efficacy of the two sets of patients. The respondents in this study however scored significantly higher on powerful others health locus of control/PHLC and chance health locus of control/CHLC than the IV respondents in Study 1. The representations of health of majority of respondents reflected their concern with physical aspects of health. Study III followed a before- after no control group design. The sample consisted of 50 graduate level female students. The purpose of this study was to study the impact of health information provision on the participants’ health related beliefs and behaviors. It aimed to examine if exposure to health knowledge pertaining to breast cancer could change the participants’ perceived breast cancer related self-efficacy and health behaviors such as breast self examination. Participants’ knowledge and behavior related to breast cancer were assessed in the pre- exposure phase, followed by an exposure session in which the participants were shown a video CD, participated in a discussion, and were given take-home health education literature about breast cancer. Two weeks after the exposure, the participants were assessed on the same measures again. Health knowledge, behavior, and self-efficacy were found to have significantly improved. It has been recommended that health education be provided to women through school curricula as well as mass media in order to improve health behaviors and corresponding self efficacy. Reliability of all the scales used in these studies was also measured. The alpha values obtained for the Urdu version of HLC scales have been found to be from .56 to .65; .67 to .78 for Representations of health scale; .80 to .83 for Self efficacy scale; and .72 to .76 for breast cancer self efficacy scale in the three studies.