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Related Experiment Videos

Causal attribution and life-threatening disease

C Mumma, R McCorkle

    International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine
    |January 1, 1982
    PubMed
    Summary

    Patients diagnosed with heart attack often attribute it to lifestyle choices, implying self-responsibility. Lung cancer patients, however, frequently express uncertainty or cite a mix of lifestyle and external factors for their disease.

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    Area of Science:

    • Medical Sociology
    • Health Psychology
    • Disease Causation Studies

    Background:

    • Patients often seek to understand the causes of serious illness.
    • Perceived personal responsibility varies across different diseases.
    • Diseases like heart attack and lung cancer have known risk factors, influencing patient attributions.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To describe patients' attributed causes for lung cancer and myocardial infarction.
    • To compare causal explanations between patients with lung cancer and myocardial infarction.

    Main Methods:

    • Secondary analysis of patient responses to an open-ended question about disease causation.
    • Content analysis of data from 108 subjects at Interview 1 and 100 subjects at Interview 2.
    • Focus on patients recently diagnosed with lung cancer or myocardial infarction.

    Main Results:

    • Myocardial infarction patients most frequently cited lifestyle factors, suggesting self-blame or responsibility.
    • Lung cancer patients were more likely to report not knowing the cause or attributed it to a combination of lifestyle (smoking) and external factors (e.g., asbestos).

    Conclusions:

    • Attributed causes for myocardial infarction and lung cancer differ significantly.
    • Lifestyle attributions in myocardial infarction patients may reflect perceived personal control, while lung cancer attributions are more complex, involving uncertainty and external factors.

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