The role of fundamental fears in the engagement in health protecting behaviour and the use of health care services
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26481/marble.2015.v6.368Abstract
Introduction Fundamental fears have been found to contribute to the engagement in health protective behaviour and the use of health care services before. These behaviours are proposed to contribute to the development of chronic pain. In order to validate these results, anxiety sensitivity (AS), injury/illness sensitivity (IS), and fear of negative evaluation (FNE) were tested in regard to these behaviours and general health concerns. Method Measures of fundamental fears, health protecting behaviour, use of health care services and perceived health were administered online to 121 participants. Correlations were tested with Pearson correlation tests. Predictive values of the fundamental fears were calculated with linear regressions. Results IS correlated positively with all behavioural measures and was the best predictor for all three behavioural measures. AS only correlated with perceived health. FNE showed a trend with perceived health and somewhat predicted health protecting behaviour. Discussion Results partially replicate previous findings, but also contradict other findings. This study further confirms the notion that fundamental fears are involved in pain-related behaviours and recommends further investigation in these relations.References
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