Health Locus of Control and Neurocognitive Function in Latinx and Non-Latinx White People Living With HIV: A Cross-sectional Study.
Maral Aghvinian, Emily P Morris, Micah J Savin and 6 others
PMID 34265825WHAT IT FOUND
Believing health is controlled by luck or others correlates with worse memory and learning scores in people living with HIV, especially Latinx participants.
Internal beliefs showed no link to cognitive performance. These associations do not prove that changing beliefs improves cognition.
Key findings
01Higher endorsement of external health locus of control (chance and powerful others) was significantly associated with worse performance in global cognition, learning, memory, and verbal fluency domains.
02Internal health locus of control showed no significant association with any aspect of neurocognitive functioning in either Latinx or Non-Latinx White groups.
03Latinx participants scored below normal limits on learning and memory tests, whereas Non-Latinx White participants did not, despite no significant differences in health locus of control beliefs between the two groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The Non-Latinx White group was small (n=38), which may reduce statistical power for within-group analyses. The sample was recruited from urban New York City and was primarily Caribbean Latinx, limiting generalizability to rural, suburban, or other Latinx subgroups. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if health beliefs cause cognitive issues or if cognitive issues influence beliefs. Health locus of control was measured by self-report, which can be influenced by social desirability. Personality characteristics, which may influence both locus of control and cognition, were not assessed.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH078719).
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the correlation between external health beliefs and lower cognitive scores as evidence that changing a patient's beliefs will improve their cognition. This is a cross-sectional study showing an association, not a causal link or an intervention effect.