Introduction:
From the aspect of public health, the determination of the relationships between the perception by patients of own disease and their predisposal for undertaking healthy promoting behaviours is a very important task. The Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLC) enables evaluatiuon of readiness for undertaking such behaviours.

Objective:
The objective of the study was determination of the way of patient self-perception of own disease, and the relation of this image to the beliefs concerning responsibility for their own health.

Material and methods:
The study covered 237 patients hospitalized due to various chronic diseases (115 males and 122 females). Patients aged from 18-90 were enrolled in the study; mean age 59.22 (SD = 14.27). The Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLC) by K. Wallston K, B. Wallston B, and R. DeVellis was applied; Polish adaptation by Z. Juczyński, and the Imagination and Perception of Illness Scale (IPIS) by J. Sak.

Conclusions:
Chronically-ill patients treated in hospital conditions perceive their own disease primarily through the prism of the destruction of the physical sphere. Patients who show a greater responsibility for own health perceive their disease as less bothersome, especially from the aspect of the loss of motivation for the biased activity and destruction of the physical sphere. The belief concerning the lack of a possibility to infl uence own health favours the perception of own disease as more affl ictive. Psychological activation of patients and increasing their convictions about possibilities to exert an eff ect on own health may positively aff ect the optimization of the costs borne within the system of health care for the treatment of patients with chronic diseases.