Perceptions and Causal Attributions of Atopic Dermatitis in Japanese Adult Patients

Lay theories of aetiology serve to reconstruct some sense of order from the fragmentation produced by illness. They are also related with illness behaviors and responsibility for health of the patients. In the last decade, many articles have been devoted to the study of the causal attributions of patients of chronic illness such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and depression. Little attention has been given to the causal beliefs of atopic dermatitis patients.

     Atopic dermatitis, a chronic itchy inflammatory skin condition, has many kinds of treatments. This situation has brought confusion into both the clinical settings and the patients’ lives in Japan. Adult patients with atopic dermatitis, whose number has been increasing, have to choose appropriate treatment for themselves on the basis of their own perceptions and causal attributions of their disease.

     We examined the illness beliefs of patients with atopic dermatitis about their causal attributions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve Japanese adult patients who had suffered from atopic dermatitis for years. The participants were recruited in Kanto area, using snowball sampling. The participants reported various beliefs about causal attributions such as dietary habit, lifestyle, bacteria, their innate constitutions, nuclear accidents. We analyzed the factors in the viewpoint of the distinction between internal/external attributions. The result shows the influence of patients’ causal beliefs on self-care activities.