The Impact of Perceived Etiology, Treatment Type, and Wording of Treatment Information on the Assessment of Gastritis Treatments

How patients assess the suitability of a certain therapy for treating a disease depends on a variety of influencing factors. Three key factors are people's subjective perceptions of a disease, the type of treatment, and the kind of communication used to convey information. The study presented here was a randomized controlled experiment in which we examined these three factors. We used a mixed design where we manipulated perceived etiology of gastritis (biopsychosocial vs. biomedical) as a between-group factor, and treatment type (behavioral vs. pharmacological) and wording of treatment information (holistic vs. scientific) as within-group factors. We found that gastritis treatments that matched the perceived etiology of the illness were assessed to be more effective. Moreover, treatments that matched the perceived etiology enhanced participants' intention to undergo the treatment themselves and their willingness to recommend it to a person close to them. Finally, participants' intention to undergo the treatment was also enhanced when the wording of the treatment information matched the perceived etiology. We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of health communication and patient education.