This study examines whether there are differences in the health beliefs of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) who arrive at the hospital in crisis and those who are not in crisis when they arrive at the hospital. That is, the study focuses on a comparison of two groups of COPD patients, a group that is admitted to the hospital in crisis via emergency room visits, and a group that, because they are not in crisis, is admitted to the hospital through regular channels such as referral from a physician or a medical agency.
According to Strain (1991), utilization of health services by the elderly (aged 65+ years) is, at least in part, a function of their perceptions of their need for these services and this perception of need is itself determined by patients' various health beliefs. For example, in her study of 743 elderly patients, Strain found that the utilization of health services was linearly related to two health beliefs: degree of medical skepticism; and belief in the value of health maintenance activities.
Similar findings have been reported by several researchers (Bauwens & Anderson, 1984; Hallal, 1982; Nemcek, 1990). Indeed, Ward (1987) has stated that the relationship of health beliefs to utilization of health services has been fairly well established by psycho-medical research. However, one area of the health beliefs/utilization of services relationship that has not been well examined is the extent to which health beliefs effect the channels through which patients are admitted to the hospital, most especially whether patients do or do not wait until they are in crisis before admission. This study focuses on determining the role which health beliefs play in crisis admission.
Because the literature indicated an association between health beliefs and utilization of health services, it was decided to examine for this relationship in a sample of elderly COPD patients. COPD patients were selected ...