Attitudes toward self-care among practicing physicians.

Self-care, although growing as a concept and a movement among providers and consumers, has not been studied systematically in any dimension. Because of the potential role of physicians in establishing the credibility and acceptability of self-care interventions and practices, an exploratory investigation was launched to develop an attitude instrument, to describe the degree to which practicing physicians in a community favor self-care, and to explore some of the correlates of the attitudes expressed. A 13-item attitude scale was developed. Physicians with the most favorable attitudes were most likely to have come from a Jewish religious background, to be under 46 years old, to have health beliefs which reflect an internal locus of control, and to be in a group practice or clinic. Physicians with the least favorable attitudes came from Protestant backgrounds, were 46 to 63 years old, had externally controlled health beliefs, and practiced medicine alone.