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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 2/2010

Open Access 01-02-2010 | Original Paper

Assessment of explanatory models of mental illness: effects of patient and interviewer characteristics

Authors: Samrad Ghane, Annemarie M. Kolk, Paul M. G. Emmelkamp

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 2/2010

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Abstract

Background

Explanatory models (EMs) refer to patients’ causal attributions of illness and have been shown to affect treatment preference and outcome. Reliable and valid assessment of EMs may be hindered by interviewer and respondent disparities on certain demographic characteristics, such as ethnicity. The present study examined (a) whether ethnic minority patients reported different EMs to ethnically similar interviewers in comparison with those with a different ethnicity, and (b) whether this effect was related to respondents’ social desirability, the perceived rapport with the interviewer and level of uncertainty toward their EMs.

Methods

A total of 55 patients of Turkish and Moroccan origins with mood and anxiety disorders were randomly assigned to ethnically similar or dissimilar interviewers. EMs were assessed, using a semi-structured interview, across 11 different categories of causes.

Results

Participants who were interviewed by an ethnically similar interviewer perceived interpersonal, victimization and religious/mystical causes as more important, whereas interviews by ethnically dissimilar interviewers generated higher scores on medical causes. These effects were not mediated by the perceived rapport with the interviewer, and social desirability had a modest impact on the results. Higher uncertainty among participants toward medical and religious/mystical causes seemed to be associated with greater adjustment in the report of these EMs.

Conclusion

The findings have significant implications for interviewer selection in epidemiological research and clinical practice.
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Metadata
Title
Assessment of explanatory models of mental illness: effects of patient and interviewer characteristics
Authors
Samrad Ghane
Annemarie M. Kolk
Paul M. G. Emmelkamp
Publication date
01-02-2010
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 2/2010
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-009-0053-1

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