Functional beliefs and risk minimizing beliefs among Thai healthcare workers in Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai hospital: its association with intention to quit tobacco and alcohol

Abstract

BackgroundIndividual health beliefs are likely to play a key role in how people respond to knowledge and information about the potential harm from smoking and alcohol abuse. The objectives of the study were to 1) explore whether functional beliefs and risk minimizing beliefs were associated with intention to quit smoking and confidence to quit smoking and 2) explore whether functional beliefs and risk minimizing beliefs were associated with intention to quit alcohol drinking and confidence to quit alcohol drinking.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2013 among health care workers working in Thailand. Using predicted factor scores from factor analysis, the relationship between factor scores for each of the two beliefs and intention to quit and confidence to quit were tested using ANOVA and further adjusted for age and sex using linear regression.ResultsFunctional beliefs were inversely associated with the intention to quit and confidence to quit smoking. Both functional beliefs and risk minimizing beliefs were each inversely associated with the intention to quit and confidence to quit alcohol drinking.ConclusionOur study enhances the understanding of the complexities of health beliefs regarding these two commonly abused substances. As functional beliefs were associated with smoking and alcohol use, interventions to counter the cultural values and individual beliefs about the benefits of smoking and alcohol use are needed. Tackling risk minimizing beliefs by providing individualized feedback regarding harm may also be useful in alcohol drinkers.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13011-017-0118-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Functional-Belief-Based Alcohol Use Questionnaire (FBAQ) as a Pre-Screening Tool for High-Risk Drinking Behaviors among Young Adults: A Northern Thai Cross-Sectional Survey Analysis

“…Secondly, risk-minimizing beliefs are quite fragile and can be altered easily by providing negative information and appropriate feedback [34].…”

“…The assessment of health beliefs about alcohol drinking was evaluated using a nineitem questionnaire derived from previous studies [37,38]. The Thai version has been used and published in previous literature [34]. The first five items were regarding the individual functional beliefs of alcohol use, whereas the latest four items were regarding the individual risk-minimizing beliefs about the risk of alcohol use.…”

“…Functional belief is the belief that the individual must rely on the use of alcohol to cope with daily life and duties [33], whereas risk-minimizing belief is the belief that the individual is less likely to be adversely affected by alcohol use [27]. These types of health beliefs commonly help drinkers to reduce their cognitive dissonance about negative consequences from alcohol [34]. One study examined the association between self-perception of associated health risk from alcohol consumption and the five-item AUDIT score and found that young people with higher AUDIT scores were unlikely to perceive that their drinking level was problematic, and that hazardous consequences of this level of use were acceptable to them [35].…”

“…One study examined the association between self-perception of associated health risk from alcohol consumption and the five-item AUDIT score and found that young people with higher AUDIT scores were unlikely to perceive that their drinking level was problematic, and that hazardous consequences of this level of use were acceptable to them [35]. Based on the results of our previous work, functional beliefs and risk-minimizing beliefs were associated with alcohol use and inversely associated with an intention to quit alcohol drinking [34]. To date, there is little evidence addressing the application of the health-belief model or health-belief intervention on alcohol-use disorder.…”

Health Beliefs of Nurses in Northern Thailand: A Q-Methodology Study

“…One study that investigated the beliefs of nurses in Northern Thailand explored postpartum care and found discrepancies between nurses’ beliefs and contemporary evidence-based practices (Kaewsarn, Moyle, & Creedy, 2003). Aside from this, the only recent study exploring beliefs of Thai health professionals was with regard to tobacco cessation (Jiraniramai et al, 2017). The authors concluded that there was a need to undertake further descriptive studies in regions where traditional cultural practices remain widespread to establish the nature of health professional beliefs, particularly in the context of widespread social and health policy change.…”