SYMPTOMATOLOGY, UNCERTAINTY, HOPE, AND ANXIETY IN CHRONIC FATIGUE IMMUNE DYSFUNCTION SYNDROME (PROBLEMATIC SYMPTOMS).
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 199
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, General.; Psychology, Psychometrics.
Description: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of perceived symptom transition and problematic symptoms on uncertainty, hope, and state anxiety in Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS). Also of interest was the possible mediating effects of uncertainty and hope on state anxiety in this chronically ill population. Further psychometric evaluation of two new symptom-related measures was also performed.

The sample consisted of 124 patients with CFIDS who were recruited from physicians' practices in three western states. The mean age of this predominantly white, female sample of married college graduates was 40. Ninety-two percent worked before becoming ill, with 82% working 40 or more hours a week. Subjects reported a significant decrease in the number of hours they have been able to work since becoming ill.

Symptom-related measures used in this cross-sectional mail survey included the De Groot Perceived Symptom Transition Scale, a new 12-item scale designed to assess the degree to which illness symptoms are perceived to be in a state of change, and the De Groot Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptom Scale, a 56-item symptom inventory that also serves as a measure of how problematic CFIDS-specific symptoms are perceived to be. Initial support for the reliability and construct validity of these two scales was demonstrated in this study. Other measures included the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Correlation, multiple regression, and path analytic procedures were used to analyze the study data.

Perceived symptom transition was found to explain significant variance in state anxiety, uncertainty, and hopelessness in this sample. Problematic symptoms were significantly associated with uncertainty and hopelessness, while uncertainty and hopelessness explained significant variance in state anxiety. No differential effect of hopelessness and uncertainty on anxiety was found.

Path analysis demonstrated significant direct and indirect effects of perceived symptom transition on state anxiety, as well as direct effects on uncertainty and hopelessness. Problematic symptoms exerted direct effects only on uncertainty and hopelessness. Perceived symptom transition and hopelessness emerged as the only significant predictors of state anxiety in the path model.

Study findings suggest the importance of symptom-related perceptions and appraisal in determining stress-associated responses to the illness situation. Further study is required to determine if the proposed theoretical model obtains across illness types, among samples, and over time.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: B, page: 1741.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1989.

School code: 0034.