Health Locus Of Control Health And Social Care Essay

This study is about the affect of health value on health locus of control. There are two groups of participant: High health value and Low health value. We are testing different hypothesis like, is there any relationship between health locus of control and age of the participants? Are health value and health locus of control effect each other and is gender has any correlation with health value? In this study the participants are students of university of Bedfordshire of different age groups and gender. We are going to find the different correlations in-between these variables. The result of study is mostly not significant.

INTRODUCTION:

Health value and health locus of control are the important areas in human life. There are so many studies and researches are there to know the health behaviours. The health value is important in study of different approaches of health behaviour. Rotter (1954) describes Locus of Control in Social learning theory. Locus of control is the person’s own belief and it is internal or external. Internal Locus of control is the perception of positive and negative moments result in person’s action and is under persons control whereas external locus of control is beyond person’s control. Dr. Hanna Levenson mentioned Locus of control as unidimentional construct. She developed IPC scale that is used for measuring Locus of control beliefs. I shows internal, P is Powerful others, C is chance. There are some scales available to measure these behaviours like health value Scale, Multidimensional Health locus of control scale (MHLC) (Wallston et al., 1978). Wallston&Wallston combined their unidemensional HLC scale and IPC scale of Levensonn’s and developed new Multidimensional health locus of control scale (MHLC).The MHLC scale has 3scales,comprises six items(Six-point Likert scale):

Internal Health locus control (IHLC) in which person believes internal factors is responsible for health or illness.

Powerful others health locus control (PHLC) person belief that health is control by others like doctors and others.

Chance health locus control (CHLC) person belief that illness depends on fate, luck or chance.

According to study done by Roberts et al. (2002) regarding the perceptions of HLOC in ladies and gents with acute lower backache, they found that gents perceived the more influence of chance factor and powerful others in their acute backache as compared to ladies.

The study done by Ogunyemi, B., Udonadi, O. (2010) depicts significant gender difference in HLOC in patients living with HIV/AIDS. The study shows men have higher HLOC than women.

According to study done on dental students in comparison of the mean scores for 3 subscales MHLC from first to final year of studies. The result shows internal score of first and second year student were same and less in third year and this was highest in final year. The mean scores of internal subscores was higher followed by powerful others among all students. There was no significant difference between mean scores of MHLC subscales when it was compared with gender, earlier treatment histories and not attending the appointment.

According to study published in journal Psychology and Health (1994) was that the respondents having higher internal locus of control and higher health value scores consumed and healthier foods whereas the persons having low health value consumed less healthy food. There was a little variation in frequency of consumption of food and health value and health locus of control interactions.

According to study done by Benett, P. (1997) published in Health psychology journal, they give questionnaire regarding measures of HLC, Health value and frequency of smoking. They found that smokers have strong IPC beliefs than people who never smoke. Ex- smokers have low scores in IPC beliefs but higher health value. They suggest that health value moderates HLC and smoking status relationship.

Lau, R. R. et al.(1986) Studied five diverse populations(97 11-16 yr old girls, 95Â of their parents, 74 ulcer patients, 1,026 undergraduates, and 940Â ofÂ their parents) to measure the value of health. The study showed that as the age increases in girls till late adolescence the health value increased. The middle aged females have higher health value than middle aged males.

Buckelew, S.P. et al. studied HLC belief in 67 males and 93 females in a comprehensive pain rehabilitation program. They found that younger males have strong internal attributional style. Older males believe in factors like chance and powerful others. Females having high internal scores were used information seeking, blaming her and coping strategies for minimization as

compare to other females with high score factors like internal and powerful others.

Hypothesis

Relationship between HLOC and age.

Correlation between HLOC and Health value.

Influence of health value on gender.

METHOD:

Design

The participants are 20 students of University of Bedfordshire and measured their health value in two levels that is high level of health value and low level of health value. We also find out what they think about their health behaviour regarding health issue. There are independent and dependent variables. Independents are health value, gender and age and Dependent variable is the health locus of control. There are equal numbers of male and female participants with mean age of. The questionnaire is on Multidimensional health locus of control scale which shows their health behaviour and internal and external health locus of control and health value scale. SPSS is used for analyse the data.

Dependent variables: Total score of HLOC

Independent variables: Health value, gender and age.

Participants

There are total 20 participants in which 10 male and 10 female students of University of Bedfordshire. Their age was from 18-40 years with a mean age 28.40 years. The standard deviation of age is 7.126.In this study we measure their high and low health value and their health locus of control. The questionnaire is on the health locus of control, health value and their correlation with other variables.

Materials

Questionnaire is based on demographic questions, Multidimensional Health locus of control scale, and Health value scale. This scale tells the health behaviour of persons and their Health locus of control either it is internal or external. HLOC has three dimensions and we use only total score. The collected data was analysed by SPSS.

Procedure

We aim to get equal number of male and females of student population. There was a questionnaire given to every participant and request them to give the answers according to best of their knowledge. Each questionnaire is given to the participants personally. Before answering the questions the consent form was signed by the participants. Every participant told about the purpose of the research and also told them that the collected data is used only for study and research purpose. The data collected was not given to any other institution. After completing the demographic questions the participants answer the main questionnaire. This was told to the participants that it’s their right that they can leave the research any time without giving any reason.

Data Analysis

The data collected from the university students is analysed by SPSS. The relationship is significant or not in between the variables is analysed by ANOVA.

Ethical consideration

The participants are the students of University of Bedfordshire, so university give the permission for survey in the campus. The students clearly mentioned about the confidentiality of the collected data. We told them that this data is only used for study and research. They are free for asking any question regarding data collection before they answer the questionnaire. If the participants have any problem during research they withdraw from the research anytime without mentioning any particular reason. This data is used for research only and not to be given to any other party.

RESULTS:

Participant

Health Value

HLOC

Gender

Age

1 High

66 M

25

2 High

70 F

24

3 High

53 M

30

4 High

47 M

27

5 High

36 F

40

6 High

56 M

32

7 High

48 F

29

8 High

37 F

30

9 High

40 M

25

10 High

80 F

27

11 Low

35 F

28

12 Low

44 M

39

13 Low

52 M

40

14 Low

43 F

32

15 Low

60 M

40

16 Low

44 M

23

17 Low

30 F

18 Low

32 F

20

19 Low

55 F

18

20 Low

33 M

21 Descriptive

[DataSet1] U:teaching masterHLOCDATA.sa

T-Test

[DataSet1] U:teaching masterHLOCDATA.sav

There were 20 participants of minimum age of18 years and maximum of40 years. The mean age of participants was 28.40 and standard deviation (SD) was 7.126.

Descriptive Statistics

CORRELATIONS

/VARIABLES=HLOC Age

/PRINT=TWOTAIL NOSIG

/MISSING=PAIRWISE

Correlations

Age

HLOC

Age Pearson Correlation

Sig(2-tailed)

.119

0.619

HLOC Pearson Correlation

Sig.(2-tailed)

0.119

0.619

T-TEST GROUPS=Health Value (1 2)

/MISSING=ANALYSIS

/VARIABLES=HLOC

/CRITERIA=C I (.95).

According to the above table of Pearson correlation(r) =0.119, N=20 and p=0.619 (p should be <0.05).This means there is not any significant correlation between age and HLOC. Pearson correlation of age=1 whereas health locus of control =0.119, so there is not any strong relation in between the both two variables.

T-Test

Group Statistics

Healthvalue

Mean

Std. Deviation

Std. Error Mean

HLOC High

Low

53.30

42.80

14.795

10.379

4.679

3.282

The above table shows the mean (53.30) and SD (14.795) of internal HLOC is more. So the people having internal HLOC have high health value.

Independent Samples Test

Levene’s Test for

Equality of Variances

t-test for Equality of Means

Sig.

Sig.(2-tailed)

Mean

difference

Std. Error

Difference

95% Confidence

Interval of the

Difference

Lower

Upper

HLOC

Equal variances

assumed

Equal variances

not assumed

1.270

0.274

1.837

16.131

0.083

0.085

10.500

5.715

-1.507

-1.608

22.507

22.608

T (18) =1.837, p=0.083, which is more than 0.05 and the df in above table is 18 and t=1.837. So there is no significant correlation between Health locus of control and health value.

Univariate Analysis of Variance

Between-Subjects Factors

Value Label

N

Health value 1

Gender 1

High

Low

Male

Female

This table shows the N value that is the number of participants in each group. Like out of 20 participants, 10 participants having high health value and 10 have low. And out of these 20, 10 are males and 10 are females in gender.

Health value Gender

Mean

Std. Deviation

High Male

Female

Total

52.40

54.20

53.30

9.762

19.880

14.795

Low Male

Female

Total

46.60

39.00

42.80

10.090

10.223

10.379

Total Male

Female

Total

49.50

46.60

48.05

9.846

16.919

13.555

Descriptive statistics

Dependent variable: HLOC

Source

Type III Sum squares

Mean square

Sig

Corrected Model

Intercept

Healthvalue

Gender

Healthvalue*gender

Error

Total

Corrected Total

703.750

46176.050

551.250

42.050

110.450

2787.200

49667.000

3490.950

234.583

46176.050

551.250

42.050

110.450

174.200

1.347

265.075

3.164

0.241

0.634

0.295

0.000

0.094

0.630

0.438

From the above table of descriptive statistics there is difference in mean of high and low health values in male and female participants. Males have total high health value as compare to females. We see the relationship significance in next table.

Tests of Between-Subject Factors

Dependent Variable: HLOC

a. R Squared= 0.202 (Adjusted R squared= .052)

From the above results, there is significant difference between health value, gender and health locus of control (F (3, 16) =1.347, p>0.05). There is difference in HLOC in men and women. As health value is high in males (52.40), and even HLOC high in males (46.60) but when we seen the mean of high health value in female participants, they have more high health value (54.20).

Profile Plots

According to above line chart in female’s health value is low in younger age and as the age grows it is improving and in males health value awareness occurs in little later age and increases with the age. As we come to health locus of control in both sexes it is declined as the age increases.

Discussion

The research shows that every participant is aware of health behaviour. The health value in males and females are almost same. This shows that gender doesn’t make any effect on health value. But female participants have high internal health value as compared to male participants. The group statistics table shows that the person having high internal locus of control have high health value. The standard deviation and mean shows that males having high health locus of control. So there is correlation between internal locus of control and health value.

The health locus of control and age has not any significant relationship, so that hypothesis is not proved. The participants having more internal locus of control have high health value, so there is correlation between internal health locus of control and health value. As we come to other hypothesis regarding gender and health value, it is proved from the data that males have high health value and health locus of control but when we measure the mean of high health value then it is more in females participants .

There was a study done by Schlenk et al. (1984) on 30 insulin dependent patients during their visit to clinics. They used questionnaire to measure the independent variables of HLOC, health value and perceived social support. There was a satisfactory significant correlation found in between social support, powerful others health locus of control (PHLC), compliance and internal health locus of control. Social support and powerful others health locus of control are the two variables significantly added to the prediction accuracy.

According to the survey done on 11000 people regarding beliefs about alcohol, health locus of control, health value and consumption of alcohol on weekly bases. Only 4% females and 14% males drink alcohol at crucial level which is harmful for their health.19% males and 27% females raised their amount of drinking in one year. In females and males only o.5 and 1% variance in consumption of alcohol which is not a big difference. So according to this study there might be different internal health locus of control beliefs for mastery, illness management and gender didn’t make big difference in relation of health locus of control and health value. So this study is also correlates with our data.

According to study done by Eagan (2009) on 3665 AmericanIndian participants aged 15-93 years showed that females had high chance health locus of control than males but otherwise scores are same in multidimensional health locus of control scale. Age has positive correlation with low internal health locus of control and high powerful others health locus of control.

The study done by Norman (1997) examined the relationship between health locus of control and exercise behaviour. It was predicted that free time exercise behaviour correlate with beliefs of internal health locus of control and exercise behaviour is more in people having high value of health. The result of study showed weak but significant correlation between health locus of control and exercise behaviour. Amount of variance is also low in exercise behaviour.

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