Illness behavior in patients with musculoskeletal disease

This PhD thesis studies the influence of psychological factors in illness behavior in different hand and upper extremity conditions encountered in the practice of a hand surgeon. The importance of the language used by the patient and the amount of shared decision making in an orthopaedic practice is investigated. This thesis focuses also on questionnaires which are administered to measure these psychological factors and to create and validate shorter questionnaires.
The overall aim is to raise awareness of 1) the importance of psychological factors as part of illness behavior in both traumatic and nontraumatic conditions of the upper extremity; 2) the importance of informed shared decision making and increase the amount of informed shared decision making in their practice; 3) word choice of the patients as an expression of emotional distress; 4) which questionnaires to use and to interpret results based on the mode of administration; 5) factors important in determining nonresponse to questionnaires or clinical follow-up, and 6) psychology evaluation to achieve better care for the patients when patients express psychological distress.