MULTIDIMENSIONAL PERSON-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION PATTERNS AND HEALTH STATUS AMONG PERSONS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS.
Contributors: University of Minnesota.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 182
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Personality.; Psychology, Social.
Description: This study's purpose was to identify and describe distinct patterns of psychological, behavioral and physiological functioning among persons with rheumatoid arthritis and to relate these patterns to functional health status.

Sixty-six individuals completed questionnaires assessing affective dispositions, coping strategy use, perceived coping effectiveness, health perceptions and multidimensional health status. Demographic data, occurrence and duration of perceived stressful experiences, concurrent pain rating, disease activity estimation, and 24-hr urinary cortisol and catecholamine levels were also obtained.

Correlations indicated that the affective dispositions were independent of each other and unrelated to coping repertoire size, perceived coping effectiveness, and hormone levels. Coping variables were also uncorrelated with hormone levels. Coping repertoire size and perceived coping efficacy produced a moderate correlation.

Cluster analysis using the dispositional and coping variables identified five groups: Self-oriented, Connected, Restricted, Undirected, and Comfortable. The name of each group represents the distinctive pattern of affective, cognitive and behavioral functioning which characterizes that group.

The groups demonstrated both differences and commonalities. Most differences involved personality characteristics, coping style use, duration of stressful experiences, current pain level, and health perceptions. No significant differences were found among hormone levels or disease-related parameters. While the differences among some of the groups were significant, they were not significant among all groups. Thus, at the global level the groups are distinct, but at the level of specific behaviors overlap exists.

Each group displayed a different multidimensional health status. All groups demonstrated low amounts of mobility impairment, while disturbances in mood, social relationships and symptom experience were more variable. When specific health domains were considered separately, significant differences among the groups existed only in the affective domain, with the Self-oriented group showing the greatest impairment. The differences in health outcomes cannot be attributed to differences in age, duration of disease, disease activity or number of comorbidities since there were no significant differences among the groups on these variables.

The findings suggest that different combinations of specific perceptual and behavioral functioning produce distinctive person-environment interactions patterns. Each of these patterns is associated with a unique functional health status.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-09, Section: B, page: 4599.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, 1993.

School code: 0130.