Relationships between locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen in a sample of Iranians

Abstract

Background:Adequate self-care in diabetes improves quality of life and decreases the number of inpatient cases. The health locus of control theory is used to assess adherence to diabetes regimen in some studies in developed countries. The primary purpose of this cross-sectional study is to determine the status of diabetes locus of control in a sample of diabetic patients in Iran as a developing country. We investigated selected factors contributing to locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen.Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional study was carried out on 120 patients referred to Yazd Diabetes Research Center. The Iranian versions of Diabetes Locus of Control scale and Diabetes Self-care Activities scale were used for data collection.Results:Men revealed more internal locus of control and women revealed more chance locus of control. The attributions of external locus of control increased by age, while the internal locus of control increased by education level and chance locus of control decreased by education level. A positive association between internal locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen was found and there was a negative association between chance locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen.Conclusion:Findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving internal locus of control may improve adherence to diabetes regimen but different diabetic patients have different attribution styles and interventional programs to enhance diabetes self-care will be more successful if patient's locus of control is addressed.

Health Locus of Control in Indonesian Women with Breast Cancer: a Comparison with Healthy Women

“…Lower educated patients tended to have a stronger belief in chance than higher educated patients, whereas lower educated healthy women tended to have lower internal and higher chance HLC than higher educated healthy women. These findings are in concordance with previous studies from Western and Eastern countries (Wallston and & Wallston, 1981;Morowatisharifabad et al, 2010). In contrast to a study by Wallston et al, (1999) that found God HLC was negatively correlated with level of education, our results suggest that both women with breast cancer and healthy women have a high God LHC regardless of their level of education.…”

The belief of control and engagement in health related behaviours in the groups of adolescents with type 1 diabetes and excess body weight

“…The engagement in health-related behaviours was related to the locus of control only in patients with excessive body weight. This result is inconsistent with the authors' assumptions and inconsistent with the results of other reports in which the conviction of influence was related both to health-related behaviours and adherence to medical recommendations in the groups of people with diabetes [3,8,9]. However, as emphasized by Morowatisharifabad et al [9], their low prediction for internal control suggests that other psychological variables undoubtedly play an important role.…”

“…However, there are also studies showing that different types of health locus of control may be more favourable in some and harmful in other circumstances. When initiating new behaviours, it is favourable to be convinced of the internal locus of control, but in the case of chronic diseases, good results for the improvement of health are usually the result of being convinced of the decisive influence of medical staff, and a strong internal control can be even harmful [9,17]. However, it turns out that the health locus of control itself to a small extent predicts the intensity of health-related behaviours, as health valuation, among others, is an important mediator.…”

“…One such factor is the locus of control [9][10][11][12]. The locus of control, understood as one of the dimensions of human personality, refers to the way in which individuals perceive the causality of the correlation between their own behaviours and their consequences [1,7,9,[13][14][15][16].…”

“…It is recognized that the above-mentioned behaviours may directly affect health (through, e.g. reducing the level of glucose in the blood) and reduce the risk of developing serious complications [3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”