CONCEPTS OF ILLNESS IN RELATION TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN IN RURAL AND URBAN THAILAND.
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 154
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study investigated the relationship between concepts of illness and cognitive task performances of Thai children. Its purpose was to determine whether or not cognitive task performances, age, gender, and rural-urban residency would be able to predict the level of concepts of illness or how children explained illness.

A total of 174 school children, aged 6 to 12, were randomly selected from six elementary schools, grades 1 to 6, in Thailand. Eighty children were from rural schools and 94 children were from urban schools. Then, the data was collected through a structured interview and a story-telling interview using pictures. The instrument included the modified Concepts of Illness Protocol, the modified Cartoon Conservation Scales, Class Inclusion Test, Modified Hierarchial Classification, and demographic questionnaire. The degree of association among independent variables (cognitive task performances, age, gender, and rural-urban locality) and the dependent variable (concept of illness) was analyzed using discriminant function analysis. The results indicated only a significant relationship between the child's age and concepts of illness. Cognitive scores, however, did not affect the child's concepts of illness. The degree of association among the independent variables (age, gender, and rural-urban locality) and the dependent variable (cognitive task performances) was analyzed using hierarchial multiple regression procedure. Both chronological age and rural-urban locality affected the child's cognitive task performances. Other findings suggested self-causality explanations of illness increased with age. The degree of accuracy of illness explanation was found to be significantly increased with chronological age.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-12, Section: B, page: 3773.

Thesis (D.N.S.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1984.

School code: 0034.
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