[Subjective illness theories: determinants or epiphenomena of coping with illness? A comparison of methods in patients with bronchial cancer].

The present paper analyzes subjective causal models in lung cancer patients. It addresses two questions: 1. What method is apt to assess subjective theories of illness? 2. What relationships can be found between subjective theories of illness on the one hand and emotional status and coping on the other hand. Subjective causes of the disease, assessed by a semi-structured interview and by a questionnaire respectively, are compared. Some connections with emotional status are tested. Univariate analyses show that certain causal models ("air pollution", "psychological cause") co-vary with emotional distress. This relationship, however, seems to be a result of a specific way of coping that works as a intervening variable, with which both subjective theory and emotional distress are confounded. The univariate connection can no longer be maintained when this way of coping is included in multivariate analysis. The question is discussed, whether subjective causal concepts may be determinants or epiphenomena of coping.