Social networks, beliefs, and the decision to seek medical care: an analysis of congruent and incongruent patterns.

This article focuses on the impact of congruent and incongruent patterns of symptom specific beliefs and social network advice on the decision to seek medical care for symptoms. Data from 769 individuals who reported symptoms in the Los Angeles Health Survey are used to examine this issue. Further, the role of more general health orientations and social network influences in the decision to seek care is examined under these congruent and incongruent conditions. It is concluded that the more general factors, which have little effect on the aggregate, may play a role in decision making when beliefs and advice are incongruent. Further, it is concluded that reports of beliefs and advice about specific symptoms that have been given after the decision has been made to seek care may be valid and not the result of retrospective reconstruction.