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

Medicine (Baltimore). 2015 Mar;94(10):e600. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000000600.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological*
  • Adult
  • Arthritis, Rheumatoid / psychology*
  • Chronic Disease
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Gout / psychology*
  • Health Status Indicators
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Quality of Life
  • Spondylitis, Ankylosing / psychology*
  • Stress, Psychological / therapy*