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The Effect of Culture and Advisor Characteristics on Treatment Outcomes

Brown, Jill Anne
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1429967404

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Psychology.
In the current climate of patient-centered care, an increasing amount of responsibility is being placed on patients to make health decisions that optimize their outcomes. Patients may vary on the amount of control they prefer to exert in a decision context. Factors such as locus of control and cultural background may influence this desire for control over treatment options. Individuals from Western, independent cultural contexts may be more amenable to the idea of making medical decisions and benefit more from this control while those from Eastern, interdependent contexts may not benefit as much from pressure to select a treatment. To aid in the decision-making process, people across cultures often turn to others for advice. However, the benefit of this advice can vary depending on a myriad of factors including the interpersonal closeness between decision-maker and their advisor. For example, an individual consulting their best friend or significant other may find themselves with better treatment outcomes than an individual seeking information from impersonal webpages or online support groups. Further, individuals from disparate cultural contexts may find more or less benefit from consultations with close or distant others, perhaps due to differing social and familial orientations and goals. The goal of the current study was to better understand how interpersonal closeness and culture interact to affect an individual’s experience of treatment decision-making and ultimately their treatment outcomes. Results demonstrate moderate support for the hypotheses; individuals who made a treatment selection after discussing their options with a close other showed better treatment outcomes than distant or no advisor groups. Additionally, the Japanese participants showed a mediation effect such that individuals who experienced the decision process negatively (e.g., rated making a treatment selection as “unpleasant”) subsequently had worse treatment outcomes. Unexpectedly, the influence of advisor condition did not differ across culture and the aforementioned effects of advisor condition were not moderated by variables anticipated to assess the desire for decisional control. Explanations and implications for these results are discussed. These findings shed light on the treatment decision-making process and how factors of the decision environment may impact treatment outcomes.
Andrew Geers, PhD (Advisor)
Jason Rose, PhD (Advisor)
J. D. Jasper, PhD (Committee Member)
Mojisola Tiamiyu, PhD (Committee Member)
Patricia Case, PhD (Committee Member)
199 p.
Psychology
decision making, placebo, patient involvement, culture

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Brown, J. A. (2015). The Effect of Culture and Advisor Characteristics on Treatment Outcomes [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1429967404

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Brown, Jill. The Effect of Culture and Advisor Characteristics on Treatment Outcomes. 2015. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1429967404.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Brown, Jill. "The Effect of Culture and Advisor Characteristics on Treatment Outcomes." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1429967404

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1429967404
601
© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.