Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in parkinson's disease via psychological coping strategies

Stephanie R. Whitworth; Andrea M. Loftus; Timothy C. Skinner; Natalie Gasson; Roger A. Barker; Romola S. Bucks; Meghan G. Thomas

doi:10.3233/JPD-120149

Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in parkinson's disease via psychological coping strategies

Stephanie R. Whitworth, Andrea M. Loftus, Timothy C. Skinner, Natalie Gasson, Roger A. Barker, Romola S. Bucks^*, Meghan G. Thomas

^*Corresponding author for this work

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Parkinson's Disease
Volume	3
Issue number	1
Pages (from-to)	45-53
Number of pages	9
ISSN	1877-7171
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3233/JPD-120149
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2013

Keywords

coping skills
extraversion (psychology)
Parkinson disease
personality
quality of life

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10.3233/JPD-120149

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title = "Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in parkinson's disease via psychological coping strategies",

abstract = "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.",

keywords = "coping skills, extraversion (psychology), Parkinson disease, personality, quality of life",

author = "Whitworth, {Stephanie R.} and Loftus, {Andrea M.} and Skinner, {Timothy C.} and Natalie Gasson and Barker, {Roger A.} and Bucks, {Romola S.} and Thomas, {Meghan G.}",

year = "2013",

month = jan,

day = "1",

doi = "10.3233/JPD-120149",

language = "English",

volume = "3",

pages = "45--53",

journal = "Journal of Parkinson's Disease",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in parkinson's disease via psychological coping strategies

AU - Whitworth, Stephanie R.

AU - Loftus, Andrea M.

AU - Skinner, Timothy C.

AU - Gasson, Natalie

AU - Barker, Roger A.

AU - Bucks, Romola S.

AU - Thomas, Meghan G.

PY - 2013/1/1

Y1 - 2013/1/1

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - coping skills

KW - extraversion (psychology)

KW - Parkinson disease

KW - personality

KW - quality of life

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U2 - 10.3233/JPD-120149

DO - 10.3233/JPD-120149

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84880200692

SN - 1877-7171

VL - 3

SP - 45

EP - 53

JO - Journal of Parkinson's Disease

JF - Journal of Parkinson's Disease

IS - 1

ER -

Personality affects aspects of health-related quality of life in parkinson's disease via psychological coping strategies

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