Congestive heart failure (CHF) is one of the leading causes of hospitalisation, morbidity and mortality in the UK. The incidence and prevalence of CHF is expected to increase due to the aging population and improved survival in heart disease. Exercise has been recognised as a valuable treatment and has proved to be beneficial in CHF. The present study applied the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Commonsense Model of Self-regulation to fitness, daily activity and medication-adherence in elderly patients with CHF. The study was in parallel with a randomised controlled trial of a 3-month exercise programme. A TPB questionnaire was used at baseline and at 3 months. Illness representations were assessed by IPQ-R at baseline. Fitness (measured by 6 minute walk test) and daily activity (measured by an accelerometer) were assessed at baseline, 3 and 6 months. ACEI-adherence (assessed by measuring serum ACE level) was assessed at baseline. The main findings from 81 CHF patients (mean age = 81 years) showed that Subjective norm (SN) was the only predictor of Intention (IN1) at baseline; Attitude, Perceived behavioural control (PBC) were predictors of INT at 3 months; fitness was predicted by PBC at 3 months. The exercise intervention led to significant changes in Attitude and PBe. The finding also indicated that the participants were more likely to attribute their illness to Chance, BiolOgical factors and God. Identity and Illness coherence predicted fitness, and Consequences predicted daily activity. Participants who believed that their illness was chronic or serious were less likely to adhere to ACEI medication. Conclusion: both the TPB and IPQ-R were useful instruments to predict behaviours in elderly patients with CHF. The IPQ-R had a greater predictive power than the TPB in this population. Illness representations may play a role in influencing the formation of intention as background factors.

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A field experiment was conducted in a pediatric clinic to learn what impact use of a sequential persuasion strategy would have on the maternal role in attending well child exams. It was found that mothers who received an initial smaller request to sign a card pledging to bring a child for well child exams reported that they would attend significantly more often than mothers who did not receive the initial smaller request. Use of a FITD technique did not erode pediatrician credibility, maternal interpersonal attraction, or maternal satisfaction with the health care experience. The pledge card was significantly associated with higher ratings of health organization credibility. Several maternal characteristics were also examined for associations with maternal attitudes in this context and significant relationships were found regarding income, age, occupation, ethnicity, and education.

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This investigation explored the role of informational and psychological privacy in the health context by examining the relationship between type of relationship (physician versus acquaintance), type of observation (self-report versus observation), and communication strategies used to restore or preserve privacy (interaction control, dyadic strategies, expressions of negative arousal, blocking and avoidance, distancing, and confrontation). It was hypothesized and confirmed that individuals report exhibiting more behaviors to restore or preserve informational privacy in response to an informationally privacy-invasive question posed by an acquaintance than by a physician. The hypothesis that presentation of an informationally privacy invasive question by the physician causes patients to exhibit more communication strategies after the privacy invasive question than before, was unsupported. Finally, the hypothesis that individuals actually exhibit more privacy restoration behaviors than they report using in a similar situation with their physician was also unsupported. Patients reported using more communication strategies than they actually exhibited. One confound to the self reports was that videotaped participants reported the use of fewer direct privacy restoring communication strategies than non-videotaped.

An experimental design was employed to determine the knowledge gained through use of written Wound Healing Fact Sheets. The study sample consisted of 30 postoperative patients recruited from the accessible population of abdominal and chest surgery patients. Subjects were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Experimental subjects were interviewed, received the Fact Sheets and underwent knowledge testing prior to discharge and by telephone approximately one week after discharge. Control subjects did not receive the Fact Sheets but were interviewed and tested identically to the experimental group. Low equivalent reliabilities were demonstrated through use of the KR-20 for the knowledge test. Content validity was established by a panel of three experts. A t-test computed between pre and post test mean scores identified a significant difference in knowledge gained by experimental versus control subjects. Low reliability weakens the significance of this result.

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between health expectations and compliance in persons who were attending a cardiac rehabilitation program. Three subscales of the Olivas Health Motivation Scale were administered to a convenience sample of 23 subjects at two points in time: at the beginning and at the completion of the prescribed sessions. A significant relationship was found between Stimulus Outcome Expectations and the duration of exercise at the beginning of the cardiac rehabilitation sessions (r = -.51, p =.02). The relationship between Regimen Efficacy Expectations and the duration of exercise was also found to be significant at the beginning of the sessions (r = -.40, p =.05). There was no significant relationship between health expectations and compliance at the completion of the sessions. One measure of health expectations, Stimulus Outcome Expectations (F = 10.11, p =.01), and two measures of compliance, duration of exercise (F = 406.45, p =.00) and metabolic equivalents (F = 74.14, p =.00), were significantly different between the beginning and the completion of cardiac rehabilitation.

This study investigated the hypothesis that dietary compliance among hemodialysis patients is related to their health locus of control orientation, as well as other factors. Fifty chronic hemodialysis patients were studied over a 3-month period. Among women interdialytic weight gain as a percentage of body weight (%BWG) was positively correlated with the number of weekly hemodialysis sessions and negatively related to ease of fluid compliance. Among men %BWG was positively correlated with powerful others health locus of control, family support, and hemodialysis tenure, and negatively correlated with employment. The best fitting multiple regression equation explained 26% of the variance for %BWG using ease of fluid compliance, frequency of urination, and powerful others orientation, with sex effects seen for the latter two variables. Staff perceptions of patient dietary compliance were also highly correlated with %BWG, though they never tabulated fluid gain controlled for body weight.