Use of coping strategies in multiple sclerosis: Association with demographic and disease-related characteristics✰

Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2019 Jan:27:214-222. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2018.10.016. Epub 2018 Oct 22.

Abstract

Background: Coping positively and negatively influences psychosocial and other outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS), but there is conflicting evidence about the use of different coping strategies and their associations with demographic and disease characteristics. Our aims were to examine which coping strategies are used by a large sample of people with MS, then to identify any associations between demographic and disease related factors with use of individual coping strategies.

Methods: Participants in the Trajectories of Outcomes in Neurological Conditions (TONiC) study completed the Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced (COPE60) questionnaire. Relationships between demographic and clinical characteristics and coping strategies were examined by multiple ordinal logistic regression to assess the effect of each potential predictor after adjustment for other possible covariates.

Results: From 722 patients, the most commonly used strategy was Acceptance, followed by Active Coping, Planning and Positive Reinterpretation and Growth. All but two strategies showed significant associations with demographic and clinical characteristics. The most marked effects were found for Restraint, with people in employment 2.1 times as likely to utilise this strategy compared to those unemployed, and Seeking of Emotional Social Support and Focus on and Venting of Emotions, which were utilised twice as much by women compared to men. Behavioural and Mental Disengagement were highly associated with greater disability and not being in employment.

Conclusion: Clinicians should be aware of several disease and demographic characteristics that are associated with use of potentially maladaptive coping strategies.

Keywords: Adaptation, Psychological; COPE60; Coping Orientations to Problem Experienced 60-item questionnaire; Coping strategies; Cross-sectional studies; EDSS; Expanded Disability Status Scale; MS; Multiple Sclerosis; Multiple sclerosis; Quality of life; RERRMS; RRMS; Rapidly-Evolving Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis; Relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis; Surveys and questionnaires; TONiC; Trajectories of Outcomes in Neurological Conditions.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological*
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Comorbidity
  • Employment* / statistics & numerical data
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive* / diagnostic imaging
  • Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive* / epidemiology
  • Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive* / physiopathology
  • Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive* / psychology
  • Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting* / diagnostic imaging
  • Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting* / epidemiology
  • Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting* / physiopathology
  • Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting* / psychology
  • Severity of Illness Index*
  • Substance-Related Disorders* / epidemiology
  • Young Adult