title: Health understanding and its effect on health outcome.
abstract: Literature regarding health belief models, health understanding and their effect on health outcome is reviewed. Aspects of the major elements comprising health understanding - including lay explanations of illness, locus of control and the affective meaning of symptoms - are described. The particular problems posed by utilising these models in a developing Middle Eastern country are discussed, together with the importance of applied research to assess the feasibility of improving health outcome by enhanced health understanding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family & Community Health, College of Medicine, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman.
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Theodorsson