The Gerontologist, Vol 34, Issue 3 299-306, Copyright © 1994 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

Impact of internal health locus of control on health outcomes for older men and women: a longitudinal perspective

MI Wallhagen, WJ Strawbridge, GA Kaplan and RD Cohen
Department of Physiological Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California at San Francisco 94143-0610.

We investigated the relationship between baseline internal health locus of control (IHLC) and 6-year change in physical functioning in 356 older adults. IHLC was strongly related to change in physical functioning for women at all levels of baseline functioning, but only affected men with lower baseline functioning. Cross-sectional analyses indicated no relationship between IHLC and health seeking activities except changing eating patterns when sick. Other findings were that IHLC was related to depression and not having childhood illness for men and to number of negative life events for women. For both genders IHLC was related to the importance placed on good health.

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