Coping strategies for health and daily-life stressors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and gout: STROBE-compliant article

• Published in: Medicine (Baltimore) Vol. 94; no. 10; p. e600
• Main Authors: Peláez-Ballestas, Ingris, Boonen, Annelis, Vázquez-Mellado, Janitzia, Reyes-Lagunes, Isabel, Hernández-Garduño, Adolfo, Goycochea, Maria Victoria, Bernard-Medina, Ana G, Rodríguez-Amado, Jacqueline, Casasola-Vargas, Julio, Garza-Elizondo, Mario A, Aceves, Francisco J, Shumski, Clara, Burgos-Vargas, Ruben
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wolters Kluwer Health 01.03.2015
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - psychology; Chronic Disease; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Gout - psychology; Health Status Indicators; Humans; Male; Observational Study; Quality of Life; Spondylitis, Ankylosing - psychology; Stress, Psychological - therapy
• ISSN: 0025-7974; 1536-5964
• DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000000600

This article aims to identify the strategies for coping with health and daily-life stressors of Mexican patients with chronic rheumatic disease. We analyzed the baseline data of a cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and gout. Their strategies for coping were identified with a validated questionnaire. Comparisons between health and daily-life stressors and between the 3 clinical conditions were made. With regression analyses, we determined the contribution of individual, socioeconomic, educational, and health-related quality-of-life variables to health status and coping strategy. We identified several predominant coping strategies in response to daily-life and health stressors in 261 patients with RA, 226 with AS, and 206 with gout. Evasive and reappraisal strategies were predominant when patients cope with health stressors; emotional/negative and evasive strategies predominated when coping with daily-life stressors. There was a significant association between the evasive pattern and the low short-form health survey (SF-36) scores and health stressors across the 3 diseases. Besides some differences between diagnoses, the most important finding was the predominance of the evasive strategy and its association with low SF-36 score and high level of pain in patients with gout. Patients with rheumatic diseases cope in different ways when confronted with health and daily-life stressors. The strategy of coping differs across diagnoses; emotional/negative and evasive strategies are associated with poor health-related quality of life. The identification of the coping strategies could result in the design of psychosocial interventions to improve self-management.