The Impact of Self-Efficacy and Subjective Cognitive Complaints on Health Care Use Among Middle-Aged Adults

Abstract

Self-efficacy (SE) refers to one's belief in the ability to do a specific behaviour and has shown to be a remarkable cognitive factor affecting health. Subjective perception of memory and other cognitive failures expressed by individuals are frequently called subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs) and have been associated with self-perception. We studied whether SE is a relevant subjective variable in predicting SCCs in middle-aged adults living in the community (N=438) and explored the role of both SE and SCCs in predicting healthcare use. SE, age and cognitive performance predicted SCCs. SE, age group, cognitive status and SCCs were predictors of healthcare use in univariate logistic regression analysis, although only SE, age group and cognitive status remained significant in multivariate analysis. The influence of SCCs in healthcare use seems to be mediated by subjective estimations like those measured by SE. We suggest that well-implemented health education interventions might contribute to increase SE in middle-aged adults with a subsequent decrease in SCCs which, in turn, would have a relevant effect in reducing the burden of care