Concepts of illness causality in a pediatric sample. Relationship to illness duration, frequency of hospitalization, and degree of life-threat.

In this study, we evaluated whether previous medical experience is associated with more sophisticated conceptions of illness causality among 64 children ages 4 to 16 years old. Although age and prorated IQ were found to be strongly related to children's illness causality concepts, duration of medical condition, total hospitalization days, and higher life-threat medical conditions were not associated with more sophisticated illness concepts in this pediatric sample. Using multiple regression analysis, age and IQ accounted for 59% of the variance in illness causality scores; contrary to expectations, medical experience variables (i.e., diagnosis, illness duration, hospitalizations) were not significant predictors of children's illness concepts. These findings highlight the need for pediatricians to guard against overestimating the illness concepts of children with prior medical experience.