The Impact of Autonomy Support in the Relationship between Illness Perception and Health Behavior in Patients with Cardiovascular Risk Factors

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Aim(s): Individuals’ perceptions of their illness and interaction with health care providers in medical encounter could affect various types of health behavior in patients with chronic diseases. This study aimed to examine the impact of autonomy support from healthcare providers in the relationship between illness perception and health behavior in patients with cardiovascular risk factors.
Method(s): A cross-sectional study was conducted using a convenience sample of 196 patients with at least one risk factor of cardiovascular diseases (Mage =58.3 yrs). Participants were recruited from three local clinics of two cities of South Korea. The data were collected by self-administered survey questionnaires including Illness Perception Questionnaire, Healthcare Climates, and Health Behavior scales and analyzed using Pearson’s correlation and Process macro bootstrapping approach using SPSS WIN 26.0 program.
Result(s): Health behavior was significantly correlated with illness perception about controllability by medical treatment (r = -.157, p =.024) and autonomy support from healthcare providers (r =.323, p < .001). The effects of some dimensions of illness perception (i.e., self-controllability, coherence) on behavioral practice were significantly different by levels of perceived autonomy support from health care providers, indicating an interaction of illness perception regarding self-controllability (β = - .0277, p < .001) and illness perception regarding coherence (β = -.0187, p = .027) with autonomy support in predicting health behavior.
Conclusion(s): Autonomy support plays a role as a moderator affecting the relationship between illness perception and health behavior. Although illness perception may be a critical factor affecting health behavior, the influence is associated with autonomy support from healthcare providers. The findings emphasize that healthcare providers should recognize their significance affecting behaviors in patients with cardiovascular risk factors. The efforts for setting autonomy supportive clinical environments needs to be highlighted.