Health beliefs and hypertension: a case-control study in a Moroccan Jewish community in Israel.

This research focuses on the efficacy of health interventions and patient-physician negotiation in modifying patient belief models and influencing compliance behavior. It is an example of clinically applied anthropology in the Hadassah Family Practice Clinic of Beit Shemesh, Israel. Forty-six Moroccan Jewish hypertensives and normotensives were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Explanatory models of hypertension were elicited. In addition, the results from all questionnaires were scored according to the Health Belief Model Equation and correlated with each individual's assessed compliance. The only positive correlation, significant to p less than 0.05, was found among hypertensives: a correlation between the degree of compliance and the congruence of the individual's health belief model with that of the health provider. The authors conclude that hypertensive health belief and explanatory models were not perceptibly affected by health care intervention. The congruence of the patient's health belief model with that of the health provider may be predictive of compliance.