Psychological factors associated with the propensity to seek help in the primary care setting

Literature shows that a greater propensity to seek professional help for both somatic and psychological problems is associated with quicker access to health care providers, greater compliance, and better outcomes in terms of well-being. To date, however, studies conducted on this topic within the primary health care setting are few and have focused mainly on seeking help for somatic issues from a general practitioner. In the present study, therefore, we adopted a biopsychosocial perspective by investigating the propensity to seek help for both somatic and psychological issues, either from a family physician or from a psychologist in the primary health care setting.
With the support of four general practitioners in Northern Italy, a sample of 197 adult patients (135 women, 62 men, mean age = 52.0, SD = 16.2) were asked to complete a set of questionnaires about some psychological variables we hypothesized to influence the propensity to seek help: stigma toward help seeking (SSOSH scale), emotion regulation style (ERQ questionnaire), and Epistemic Trust (ETMCQ questionnaire).
Results showed that higher levels of education and the use of cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation style were associated with a greater propensity to seek help, both from psychologists and physicians. In contrast, participants less inclined to seek help tended to show disruptions in the Epistemic Trust dimension (hypervigilance or credulity), more negative judgments toward help-seeking (self stigma), and a greater tendency to suppress emotions. Regarding the propensity to seek psychological help specifically, female participants and those with higher Epistemic Trust reported a greater tendency to seek help.
The main novelty of these results, compared to existing literature, is the connection highlighted between the propensity to seek help and the construct of Epistemic Trust. In other words, the ability to rely on others as useful sources of information affects help-seeking behaviour toward both physicians and psychologists. Since this capacity develops within favourable social, cultural, familial, and relational contexts, these findings suggest directions for promoting it within helping relationships and for designing social interventions that support it, particularly in economically and socially disadvantaged populations.