Attitudes of Chronically-Ill Patients to Telephone Health Coaching

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the general attitudes of health insurants with chronic conditions towards a health coaching and their reasons for participation in or refusal of the telephone health coaching provided by their sickness fund. Method: The survey was designed as a cross-sectional study on insurants who had either participated in the coaching (n=834), declined participation (n=530) or were members of a control group (n=544). Furthermore, we investigated whether the reasons and attitudes differed with regard to socio-demographic variables of the participants (age, sex, primary condition). Results: The most common reason for participation in health coaching was the feeling of obligation towards the society to take care of one's own health (80.1%). Further reasons included a general interest in prevention (75.4%) and health-related issues (51.1%). The main reason for declining participation was a sufficient care by family members or a general practitioner (96.4%). This was in particular the case with older insured persons. Most people in the control group estimated health coaching as effective and appropriate for them. Those who had declined to participate were more critical in their appraisal. The younger the insured were, the more positive was their attitude towards health coaching. Conclusions: The results show that, on the one hand, insured feel obligated to participate in prevention programs but, on the other hand, they are also interested in information about their condition and in the possibility to contribute to their treatment. The telephone health coaching by the KKH-Allianz is a new approach in the German health care and can be regarded as a supplement to medical treatment. Specifically, younger insured are highly interested in this new concept. Further studies on its efficacy are required to show the extent to which expectations and needs of insurants can actually be met.