The copying style of RA and OA patients was not related
to the self-management behaviours as patients appeared to be health
detail-oriented than health detail avoidant.
Arthritis
is a common term used to describe 200 rheumatic disorders affecting our joints.
It is not a single term but covers a broad perspective. There is no cure for
arthritis and patients often face a range of stresses such as adjusting to fluctuations
in symptoms (e g. joint pain) and treatment (e g. medication changes). These
are engaged in coping mechanisms like accessing medication-related information.
Many studies have reviewed attentional coping style among patients with a
variety of acute health diseases (e g. cancer screening) and a few studies have
explored coping styles among patients with chronic diseases (e g. asthma and
multiple sclerosis), where stress is present but not always acute.
According
to a study led by the University of North Carolina and Eshelman School of
Pharmacy, arthritis patients were more likely to be high monitors (health
detail oriented) than high blunters (health detail avoidant). High monitors
attend to and prefer more information but blunters tend to avoid and prefer
less information. Study findings reveal that the attentional coping styles of
patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) tend not to be
associated with self-management behaviors such as how patients have medication
related discussions with their doctors and medication adherence. Findings tends
to be more consistent when addressed with medical stressors. This study was
published online on September 30,2016 in “The
Open Rheumatology Journal”.
Lorie
Geryk, a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and
Policy at Eshelman School of Pharmacy and lead author of the study, exclaimed
that, "When we investigated the relationship between RA and OA patients,
attentional coping styles and behaviors related to medication information we
were surprised that we did not see results in accordance with the
characteristic patterns outlined in the acute and chronic disease coping
literature. In fact, counter to expected coping trends, we found that higher
monitoring was associated with less information-receipt for RA patients and
among OA patients, higher blunting was associated with more
information-receipt."
It is
culminated that more research is needed in this prospect to better understand
the long term relationship between coping style and patient medication-related
behaviors in order to clarify why and when health-relevant information is
likely to benefit arthritis patients.
Bentham Science Publishers
Arthritis patients more likely to be health detail oriented than health detail avoidant, shows study
Lorie Geryk et al.
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