Spousal Support and Health Locus of Control as Predictors of Hospital Utilisation among Men Diagnosed With Erectile Dysfunction

Abstract

The psychological impact of erectile dysfunction can be seen in their current marital relationship, the willingness to discuss the illness, the feeling of guilt and denial, depression, anger, decrease in self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as the feeling of failure as a man. However, this study examined how spousal support and health locus of control significantly predict hospital utilisation among men diagnosed with erectile dysfunction in Ibadan, Oyo State. This study adopted an Ex-post facto design involving a purposively sampled 124 participants from Adeoyo Hospital with ages ranging between 37 and 74 and a mean age of 49.87±10.79 years respectively. A 54-item self-report questionnaire comprising socio-demographics, spousal support (α=.89), health locus of control (α=.75), and hospital utilisation (α=.86) was administered. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Moment Correlation, Hierarchical Multiple Regression and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. In all, two hypotheses were tested. After statistically controlling for age and duration of illness. It was discovered that spousal support and health locus of control jointly predicted hospital utilisation (F_(9,113) = 72.86, R=.92, R²=.85, p<.001). However Information support (β= .55, t= 8.63; p<.001), physical comfort (β= .18, t= 2.29; p<.05), internal control (β= .16, t= 2.56; p<.05) and powerful other (β= .19, t= 3.47; p<.01) significantly independently predict patients hospital utilisation. Furthermore, results discovered that educational qualification [F (5, 113) = 1.465; P>.05] has no significant prediction on hospital utilisation. Finally, knowing how spousal support and health locus of control affect hospital utilisation. Healthcare providers should involve spouses in treatment plans to leverage emotional and informational support, which has been shown to encourage hospital utilisation.