Health Perceptions of Primary Care Patients and the Influence on Health Care Utilization

Bibliographic Data

ID9102397
AuthorsJulia E Connelly (University of Virginia, corresponding author), John T Philbrick (University of Virginia, corresponding author), Glen Smith (0000-0002-7594-4386, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences), G RICHARD SMITH, Donald L Kaiser (University of Virginia), Antoinette Wymer (University of Virginia)
Year1989
Volume27
IssueSupplement
PagesS99-S109
Publication date1989-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Care (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0025-7079 • E-ISSN: 1537-1948
PublisherOvid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1097/00005650-198903001-00009
PMID2921890
OpenAlexW1980896766
LanguageEN
Citations received46

This prospective study was conducted to determine the influence of primary care patients' health perceptions on their utilization of health care services. Patients' health perceptions were measured using the RAND Corporation's General Health Perceptions Questionnaire. Physicians provided scores of how they thought the patients perceived their health and of actual physical and emotional health. Utilization data (number of office visits, number of telephone calls to the physician, and ambulatory charges) were evaluated for a 12-month period after completion of the questionnaire. Of 208 patients, 62 (30%) patients with health perceptions scores less than 50 had greater degrees of anxiety (P less than .001), depression (P less than .001), health-related worry (P less than .001), and felt less able to resist illness (P less than .001) than patients with higher health perception scores. Analysis of covariance was used to control for differences in physical health among groups of patients with varying health perceptions. These analyses revealed that patients with low health perceptions made more office visits (P = .002), more telephone calls to the physician (P = .01), and had more office charges (P = .05) than patients with higher scores. Physicians accurately predicted the patients' health perceptions in 49% of the cases. In 37%, they thought patients would score their health perceptions higher than they did; in 14% they thought patients would score their health perceptions lower. Health perceptions are an important factor contributing to the use of health care by primary care patients, regardless of the patient's actual physical health. Persons with low health perceptions account for approximately 5% of office visits, a clinically important fraction, especially when compared to the 9% of office visits for hypertension, the most common disease treated in the medical office

Anxiety · Depression (economics) · Family medicine · Health care · Perception · Psychiatry · Worry · Health and Wellbeing Research · Health, psychology, and well-being · Medicine · Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare · Psychology