Abstract
The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of coping strategies on Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and physical disability assessed with the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) of people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). PwMS were asked to focus on “MS diagnosis” as the core stressor. One hundred eight pwMS completed the Coping Responses Inventory-Adult form (CRI-Adult), the Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-29 (MSQoL-29), and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). Multiple regression analyses (first block: EDSS, disease duration, and DASS-21) revealed that physical MSQoL-29 was positively associated with Alternative Rewards and negatively with Resigned Acceptance of the CRI-Adult. The mental MSQoL-29 was positively associated with Problem-Solving and negatively with Emotional Discharge. The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS; first block: disease duration and general distress) was negatively associated with Positive Reappraisal. The Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that pwMS with lower physical disability showed higher scores in Positive Reappraisal and lower scores in Emotional Discharge than pwMS with a higher physical disability. Coping strategies can play a role on HRQoL and physical disability in pwMS above and beyond EDSS, disease duration, and general distress. Psychological interventions should be considered in pwMS since the time of diagnosis to promote engagement in adaptive coping strategies and contrast the maladaptive ones.
Highlights
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative autoimmune disorder of the human central nervous system (CNS) characterized by both white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) damage [1] that leads to physical disability [2] and cognitive impairment [3]
The results of the present study showed that coping strategies employed to cope with MS diagnosis played different roles on current Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL)
In accordance with previous studies [7,14,34], we found that engagement in approach coping strategies at the time of diagnosis plays a positive role in mental HRQoL of people with MS (pwMS)
Summary
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative autoimmune disorder of the human central nervous system (CNS) characterized by both white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) damage [1] that leads to physical disability [2] and cognitive impairment [3]. Both physical disability and cognitive impairment can drive to psychological distress, which may result in substantial limitations of daily-life activities [4], and compromise Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of people with MS (pwMS) [5,6]. Coping strategies are categorized as active/adaptive or avoidant/maladaptive [10]. Adaptive coping strategies predict better physical and mental health outcomes [11,12], whereas avoidant coping strategies are associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes [10,13] and poor Quality of Life (QoL; [14])
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