Questionable Health Behaviors and Their Distal and Proximal Correlates: Protocol for a Nationally Representative Survey in Serbia

The goals of the study:

1. to investigate the frequency of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine use (TCAM) and intentional Non-adherence to medical recommendations (iNAR) in the general population in Serbia, as well as their mutual relations.
2. to examine the distribution of irrational beliefs in the general population;
3. to explore the relationships between TCAM and iNAR behaviors on the one hand and variables of personality, thinking styles and cognitive reflection on the other, with a major assumption that these relationships will be mediated by the domain of irrational beliefs and socio-political attitudes.

Participants will respond to a battery of instruments assessing TCAM use and iNAR, as well as, sociodemographics and health-related variables (such as health status, chronic diseases, BMI, etc.), distal psychological (i.e. personality, thinking disposition and styles) and proximal psychological, variables, (i.e. the irrational mindset, as well as socio-political beliefs and attitudes).

Data will be collected on the probabilistic household sample representative for the general population in Serbia (N=1043).