Assessment of sickness certification and concepts of XXXX and illness in the general population.

@entity1 @entity85 @entity4048
OBJECTIVE: To investigate how laymen assess the need for sickness certification and how they use the concepts "disease" and "illness" in relation to @entity85 . DESIGN: Mail questionnaire with simulated case histories. SUBJECTS: A stratified, random sample of 600 Norwegians, aged 16-69 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Scores that measured the respondents' use of the concept "illness", and their view on need for sickness certification were constructed and analysed. RESULTS: Response rate was 54%. The respondents perceived seven case histories describing musculoskeletal health problems more often as "illness" (61%) than as "disease" (46%). There was a close correlation between the use of "illness" and assessed need for sickness certification. However, sickness certification could be suggested for cases with @entity4048 , even if the @entity1 was not perceived as ill. @entity1 suggested sickness certification significantly more often than @entity1 . Age, length of education, and personal experience with serious musculoskeletal health problems influenced suggestions on certification among @entity1 . However, these variables could not explain any difference in use of the concept "illness".
