title: Comparative Analysis of the Role of Beliefs in the Causes of Illness and Attitudes toward Medical Services in University Students from Disparate Specialties.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to compare and investigate the differences in beliefs with regard to the cause of illnesses, medial skepticism, and attitudes toward medical care between medical, Oriental medical, and nonmedical students.
  
  
  METHODS
  To this end, we used a structured questionnaire and collected self-reported data from a sample of 667 respondents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  First, their beliefs on the causes of illness were markedly different, depending on their specialty. Compared with students from other specialties, Oriental medical students ranked host factors, environmental factors, and natural factors as the highest causes of illness. -the former group regarded supernatural factors as a more influential cause of illnesses compared with the latter. Among Oriental medical students and nonmedical students-who were also subdivided into the aforementioned groups-the upper-grade group regarded host factors as a higher cause of illness than the lower-grade group. Second, Medical skepticism also differed depending on specialty. Compared with the medical students, Oriental medical students were more likely to have high confidence in "overcoming illnesses", "home remedies", "self-decision in treatments", and "understanding their own health". In subdividing medical and Oriental medical students according to grade we observed that the senior group had more confidence in home remedies than the junior group. Third, In an analysis of the students attitudes toward medical care, we found that nonmedical students had the highest score in the "care-oriented" and "cure-oriented" attitude categories. In the overall results, the care-oriented category ranked highest for the nonmedical students, followed by Oriental medical students and medical students; the cure-oriented category ranked highest for nonmedical students, followed by medical students and then Oriental medical students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on our results, we conclude that these differences between specialties should be reflected in medical curricula to bridge the gap between patients and doctors in medical education with regard to the causes of illness and attitudes toward medical care.
authors: Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans' University, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Sunhee
authors: S
authors: Lee
authors: Department of Medicine, Graduate School of Ewha Womans' University, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Juhye
authors: J
authors: Kim
authors: Department of Medicine, Graduate School of Ewha Womans' University, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Juhyun
authors: J
authors: Seo
authors: Department of Medicine, Graduate School of Ewha Womans' University, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Junga
authors: J
authors: Lee
authors: Department of Medicine, Graduate School of Ewha Womans' University, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Gwiyeom
authors: G
authors: Ha
keywords: Attitude toward medical care; Cause of illness; Medical education; Medical skepticism