Disease cause attribution and preference for low versus high self-management treatments

Abstract We investigate how disease cause attribution influences preferences for treatments that vary in patients’ self-management by comparing the attribution of disease cause to lifestyle and attribution to genes. We demonstrate that individuals’ self-control trait is a critical moderating factor...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tom Joonhwan Kim, Jaehwan Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-07-01
Series:Scientific Reports
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-11710-7
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Summary:Abstract We investigate how disease cause attribution influences preferences for treatments that vary in patients’ self-management by comparing the attribution of disease cause to lifestyle and attribution to genes. We demonstrate that individuals’ self-control trait is a critical moderating factor in deciding preference between treatments in response to the disease cause information. Individuals with low self-control traits had a stronger tendency to prefer a treatment that requires a low level of self-management when they attributed the disease cause to genes than when they attributed it to their lifestyle. However, the preference for treatments of individuals with high self-control traits was not influenced by the disease-cause attribution. We suggest medical practitioners consider how disease attribution can influence preference for available treatment options when communicating with their patients.
ISSN:2045-2322