Concept, development and application of a new mixed method assessment of cultural variations in illness perceptions: Barts Explanatory Model Inventory.

In urban inner city areas, health professionals meet many individuals from diverse cultural groups that they need to understand, assess and treat effectively. This article describes the concept, development and application of a new assessment tool (the Barts Explanatory Model Inventory) that aims to help health professionals determine illness perceptions and treatment preferences of distress. The article describes the tool's background in theories of illness perception, gives a brief review of currently available instruments and describes the systematic development of this new instrument. Results from the first application are discussed to determine benefits and weaknesses of the new tool.

Preferences for involvement in medical decision making: comparing British and German views.

Despite beneficial outcomes of patients' involvement in medical decision processes, it has been claimed that patients are generally not interested in medical decision making (MDM). Whereas current research focuses on actual MDM, this research explored the impact of nationality and perceptual processes of MDM. Preferences for involvement in decision making were examined in a sample of 204 German and 143 British university students. Hierarchical multiple regressions were employed to explore the link between socio-demographic information, individuals' perceived relationship with their GP, Health Locus of Control - Powerful Others, perceptions regarding the frequency and sufficiency of information provision and involvement in MDM, and individuals' preferred level of involvement and information. A significant amount of the variance in individuals preferences for involvement could be explained (Adjusted R2 = .59, p < .001). Independent t-test analyses showed that British and German perceptions of care differed significantly on a variety of different measures. Separate analyses for the German and British group highlighted cross-national differences in care and preferences for involvement. The study suggests that preferences to become involved might depend more on perceptual processes than actual involvement in decision making, and that communication and national health policy could play an important role.