Medical conditions, stress levels, and social support all have an impact on our health and well-being, especially when we are ill. But a new report suggests that what you think about your illness matters just as much, if not more, in determining your health outcomes, reports Sade Oguntola.

Individuals’ beliefs and emotional responses to their illness influence their satisfaction with the consultation, reassurance following negative medical testing and future healthcare use.      

Research has shown that people’s illness perceptions bear a direct relationship to several important health outcomes, including their level of functioning and ability, utilisation of health care, adherence to treatment plans laid out by health care professionals, and even surviving the illness.

Much as medical conditions, stress levels, and social support all have impact on a person’s health and well-being, especially when sick, researchers indicated that a person’s thinking about his illness matters just as much, if not more, in determining his health outcomes than
the actual severity of the disease.

The study published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, which suggested a mind-body connection and the power of positive thinking when it comes to health, tracked a series of studies on patients’ perceptions of illness.

Basically, a sick person’s perceptions of his ailment emerge out of his beliefs about illnesses and what they mean in the context of their lives. Although such beliefs about how an illness is caused, how long it will last or how it will impact one’s family live or job vary from one person to another, “patients’ perceptions of their illness guide their decisions about health.” Little wonder, a patient that feels he is well might not finish taking the doctor’s recommended dose of a malaria medicine. Similarly, another individual that feels a prescribed treatment isn’t making him feel better might stop the treatment.

Nonetheless, patients’ beliefs about their condition are often at variance with those who are treating them. In fact, medical staff are usually unaware of patients’ ideas about their condition because often they rarely ask patients about their own ideas in clinical consultations.

 In addition, patients’ perceptions vary widely. Even patients with the same medical condition or injury can hold very disparate views of their illness.

Can a person’s perception of his ailment be separated from his health?  Not really. Dr Olufemi Olowookere, a consultant family physician, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, said a person’s belief has a lot to do with his health.

According to him, “sometimes a patient could have a physical illness, but as a doctor there is also the need to take into consideration the psychological and social aspects of that illness. Of course, such things as who are the people taking care of the patient, what are the support available and so on could culminate into what is going to make the patient to get better.”   

Indeed effective health care treatment plans are much more than having a competent physician. According to Dr Olowookere,  even where a medical doctor makes accurate diagnosis and have excellent treatments, but  the therapy does not tally with the patient’s view of his illness or if they think it is not effective, they are unlikely to keep taking it or get better.

He pointed out that perceptions of the patient on his ailment and the expected treatment cannot be separated from the religious beliefs as well.

“For now, people are saying people’s religious beliefs should not be relegated to the background because it has a lot to do with their response to their health. Whatever the patient believes, that is where his faith hinges.

“So, when I am talking to my patient, I try to assess his feeling about his ailment, ideas about his ailments, fears and expectations. These are very important and cannot be removed from a patient.”

Dr Olowookere, corroborating that a patient’s perception of his ailment was an important factor in his chances of recovery stated, “Where people’s perception of their ailment could impact their chances of recovery, the onus is on the medical doctor to work round the belief to ensure the patient gets better.”

According to him, asking patients about how they view their illness gives physicians the opportunity to identify and correct any inaccurate beliefs patients might have. Once a patient’s illness perceptions are clearly laid out, it becomes easier to try to nudge those beliefs in a direction that is more compatible with treatment or better health outcomes.

“In fact, people who are pessimistic die faster than those that are optimistic.  But someone who is hopeful that he or she would get well indeed pools out of his sickness,” he declared.

Dr Sunday Ekanem, a senior registrar at the Department of Medicine, UCH, Ibadan, corroborated that studies have shown that mood alleviation generally help patients psychologically to cope with their ailments and get better.

According to him, given that the definition of good health is being in a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, when a person’s psychological approach to his or her health issues is good, it is certainly going to contribute to improved recovery and better general health.

Dr Ekanem declared: “We actually observe that our patients do well when they are happy, when they have an elevated mood or excited.

Again, studies done both in Nigeria and in other parts of the world found that patients who are prayed for because of the calmness of their minds, generally do better.

“So it is understandable that  a person’s perception of his illness, views about issues relating to his health,  and being generally positive about issues in life makes a lot of difference to people’s recovery from their ailments.

Research confirms that brief, straightforward psycho-educational interventions can modify negative illness beliefs and lead to improvements over a range of different health outcomes.

Comments (0)

Show/hide comments

Show/hide comment form

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment