Examining the Relationship between Health Locus of Control and the Use of Medical Care Services

Health locus of control, the extent to which one believes he or she can affect his or her health status, usually is viewed as one of the factors that predisposes individuals to use medical services. However, some social theorists outside the area of utilization studies suggest that locus of control beliefs also are consequences of health-related behaviors and events such as utilization. The authors address this issue by investigating the relationship between health locus of control and utilization of medical services in a sample of 298 elderly community-dwellers surveyed at three points in time. They found that health locus of control was affected by serious medical care encounters and that, for two dimensions of health locus of control, there was a reciprocal relationship between control beliefs and utilization.