Health Locus of Control and its related factors among Iranian Pilgrims

Aim: Health locus of control includes the degree of a person's belief in the fact that his/her health is controlled by internal or external factors. The aim of this study was to determine the status of health locus of control and its related factors among Iranian pilgrims.
This cross-sectional study was performed on 600 pilgrims of the holy shrines in Tehran in 2015. People aged over 15 years who had come for pilgrimage to the shrines entered the study by convenient sampling and after consent. The A form of the Multi-dimensional Health Locus of Control scale was used. This form consists of Internal Health Locus of Control (IHLC), Powerful others (PHLC) and Chance External Locus of Control (CHLC). The relation of between age, gender, education, income, marital status and location of residence on each construct was evaluated by t-test, ANOVA and linear regression through SPSS21.
Findings: Among the total pilgrims, 302 were females (50.3%). The mean age of the participants was 33.15±11.06 years. The highest and lowest averages were associated with the internal locus of control (25.60±3.34) and the chance locus of control (18.20±5.13), respectively. There was a significant relationship between educational level and IHLC; between income and education level with CHLC; and between marital status and age with PHLC.
According to our results, most people think that they control their health or life events themselves. People with a higher internal locus of control score have more tendency to practice health promotion and disease prevention and seek health through visiting holy sites and appealing to God.