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Epistemological beliefs about medical knowledge: Do they play a role in patients’ behaviour?
Journal Title: RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA  
Author/s: Alessandro Antonietti, Manuela Cantoia 
Year:  2014 Issue: 2 Language: Italian 
Pages:  20 Pg. 341-360 FullText PDF:  226 KB
DOI:  10.3280/RIP2014-002010
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The study involved 84 adults who were administered three self-report questionnaires: the "Questionnaire on Epistemological Beliefs in Medicine" (Antonietti & Ferraro, 2013), the adapted version of the "How I know" questionnaire aimed at assessing contextualised epistemological beliefs (Antonietti & Ferraro, 2013) and a questionnaire to assess the level of health literacy. Participants were divided in subgroups according to their age, level of instruction, medical literacy, and individual medical experiences in the last 5 years. Analyses showed that the level of instruction was related to epistemological beliefs: graduated participants were more likely to share a relativistic view. Participants with recent hospital experiences were more absolutist. No effect neither of age nor of specific domain knowledge emerged. Perspectives on health literacy and the status of the knowledge involved in relations between health professionals and patients are discussed.
Keywords: Epistemological beliefs, health literacy

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Alessandro Antonietti, Manuela Cantoia, Epistemological beliefs about medical knowledge: Do they play a role in patients’ behaviour? in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA " 2/2014, pp. 341-360, DOI:10.3280/RIP2014-002010

   

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