Page No 317-327
P. Awasthi and R.C. Mishra
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
The effect of social support on health-promotive and health protective-behavior
has been examined in a number of studies.The present study examines the
relationships between illness beliefs and social support in cervix cancer patients.
Measures of illness beliefs and social support were administered. The analysis
revealed individual and psychosocial causes to be more strongly represented in
the belief system of women than environmental or supernatural causes. Patients
received emotional and practical support more than social companionship and
informational supports. Interpersonal, physiological and psychological consequences
of illness were negatively correlated with all types of support. Patients characterized
by high level of social support felt less severe consequences of illness and believed
in self or doctors control of disease, whereas patients with low social support
perceived more severe consequences of illness and believed in supernatural control
of their illness. The findings are discussed and their implications are pointed out
.