Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease via psychological coping strategies.

Background: Personality traits influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Parkinson's disease (PD). Further, an individual's personality traits can influence the strategies they use to cope with a particular stressful situation. However, in PD, the interplay between personality tr...

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Main Authors: Whitworth, Stephanie, Loftus, Andrea, Skinner, Timothy, Gasson, Natalie, Barker, Roger, Bucks, Romola, Thomas, Meghan
Format: Journal Article
Published: I O S Press 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27580
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author Whitworth, Stephanie
Loftus, Andrea
Skinner, Timothy
Gasson, Natalie
Barker, Roger
Bucks, Romola
Thomas, Meghan
author_facet Whitworth, Stephanie
Loftus, Andrea
Skinner, Timothy
Gasson, Natalie
Barker, Roger
Bucks, Romola
Thomas, Meghan
author_sort Whitworth, Stephanie
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Background: Personality traits influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Parkinson's disease (PD). Further, an individual's personality traits can influence the strategies they use to cope with a particular stressful situation. However, in PD, the interplay between personality traits, choice of coping strategy, and their subsequent effect on HRQoL remains unclear. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine whether personality (neuroticism and extraversion) indirectly affects HRQoL through the use of specific psychological coping strategies. Methods: One hundred and forty-six patients with PD completed questionnaires on personality (Big Five Aspects Scale; BFAS), coping (Ways of Coping Questionnaire; WCQ), and mood-specific (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale; DASS-21) and disease-specific HRQoL (Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire; PDQ-39). Results: After controlling for gender, age at diagnosis, and age at testing, the emotion-focused coping strategy of escape-avoidance was significantly correlated with neuroticism and certain aspects of HRQoL (cognitive impairment and social support). This suggests that neurotic personality traits may negatively impact on some aspects of HRQoL due to an increased use of escape-avoidance coping strategies. By contrast, planned problem-solving and escape-avoidance coping strategies were both significantly linked to extraversion and interpersonal and mood-related domains of HRQoL. This suggests that extraversion may positively impact on some aspects of HRQoL due to patients adopting greater planned, problem-solving coping strategies, and using fewer escape-avoidance coping mechanisms. Conclusions: Psychological interventions aimed at targeting maladaptive coping strategies, such as the use of escape-avoidance coping, may be effective in minimising the negative impact of neuroticism on HRQoL in PD.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-275802017-09-13T15:52:28Z Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease via psychological coping strategies. Whitworth, Stephanie Loftus, Andrea Skinner, Timothy Gasson, Natalie Barker, Roger Bucks, Romola Thomas, Meghan Parkinson disease coping skills quality of life extraversion (psychology) personality Background: Personality traits influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Parkinson's disease (PD). Further, an individual's personality traits can influence the strategies they use to cope with a particular stressful situation. However, in PD, the interplay between personality traits, choice of coping strategy, and their subsequent effect on HRQoL remains unclear. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine whether personality (neuroticism and extraversion) indirectly affects HRQoL through the use of specific psychological coping strategies. Methods: One hundred and forty-six patients with PD completed questionnaires on personality (Big Five Aspects Scale; BFAS), coping (Ways of Coping Questionnaire; WCQ), and mood-specific (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale; DASS-21) and disease-specific HRQoL (Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire; PDQ-39). Results: After controlling for gender, age at diagnosis, and age at testing, the emotion-focused coping strategy of escape-avoidance was significantly correlated with neuroticism and certain aspects of HRQoL (cognitive impairment and social support). This suggests that neurotic personality traits may negatively impact on some aspects of HRQoL due to an increased use of escape-avoidance coping strategies. By contrast, planned problem-solving and escape-avoidance coping strategies were both significantly linked to extraversion and interpersonal and mood-related domains of HRQoL. This suggests that extraversion may positively impact on some aspects of HRQoL due to patients adopting greater planned, problem-solving coping strategies, and using fewer escape-avoidance coping mechanisms. Conclusions: Psychological interventions aimed at targeting maladaptive coping strategies, such as the use of escape-avoidance coping, may be effective in minimising the negative impact of neuroticism on HRQoL in PD. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27580 10.3233/JPD-120149 I O S Press fulltext
spellingShingle Parkinson disease
coping skills
quality of life
extraversion (psychology)
personality
Whitworth, Stephanie
Loftus, Andrea
Skinner, Timothy
Gasson, Natalie
Barker, Roger
Bucks, Romola
Thomas, Meghan
Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease via psychological coping strategies.
title Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease via psychological coping strategies.
title_full Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease via psychological coping strategies.
title_fullStr Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease via psychological coping strategies.
title_full_unstemmed Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease via psychological coping strategies.
title_short Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease via psychological coping strategies.
title_sort personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in parkinson’s disease via psychological coping strategies.
topic Parkinson disease
coping skills
quality of life
extraversion (psychology)
personality
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27580