Introduction: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder that severely affects patients’ lives. How patients cope with the stress of receiving this diagnosis is influenced by...Show moreIntroduction: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder that severely affects patients’ lives. How patients cope with the stress of receiving this diagnosis is influenced by information-seeking coping style, which can be classified on two dimensions: monitoring (seeking information) and blunting (avoiding information). Patients’ level of monitoring and blunting may affect their perception of amount of information. Clinicians may not tailor the amount of information to the individual needs of patients, negatively impacting their recall. This study hypothesized that the amount of provided information by clinicians is equal for patients who score high on monitoring and patients who score high on blunting. Additionally, this study hypothesized that patients with high monitoring scores would report receiving too little information, and that patients with high blunting scores would report receiving too much information. Method: This study employed a prospective observational longitudinal design as part of the DiaMove Project. The sample consisted of newly diagnosed PD patients who completed questionnaires assessing their demographic characteristics, coping styles and perceived amount of information. Diagnostic consultations were video-recorded and subsequently observationally quantitatively coded for duration of information provision per topic. Statistical analyses included equivalence testing, independent t-tests and logistic regression. Results: This study found that the amount of information provided by clinicians is not equivalent for patients (N = 28) with high scores on the monitoring scale and those with high scores on the blunting scale (CI = [-0.26 – 0.37]; CI = [-0.20 – 0.43]). In addition, two independent t-tests were conducted, which showed no significant difference in the amount of information provided for high scores on the different coping styles (p = .288; p = .552). Furthermore, the likelihood of wanting to receive more or less information cannot be predicted by respectively high scores on the monitoring and blunting coping style (p > .05). Discussion: Patients’ level of monitoring or blunting was not a significant predictor for the amount of information provided and did not predict patients’ reported amount of information provided by clinicians. These findings may be influenced by limitations of self-reported questionnaires, such as the length and the small sample size of the study.Show less
Background: The aim of this study is to investigate differences in QoL between males and females visiting a memory clinic. Knowledge about determinants of QoL is limited, especially from patients'...Show moreBackground: The aim of this study is to investigate differences in QoL between males and females visiting a memory clinic. Knowledge about determinants of QoL is limited, especially from patients' own perspective. We examined whether there was a relationship between sex and QoL in patients in different stages and with different types of dementia taken together (total sample), whether this relationship existed within patient groups of specific stages or types of dementia separately and whether this relationship in the total sample was mediated by anxiety, depression, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility and/or coping style. Methods: In total, 375 patients aged between 32 and 82 years, who visited the memory clinic and who completed an 88-item self-reported questionnaire, were included in the study. Linear regressions were performed to assess the relationship between sex and QoL and whether stage and type of dementia affect this relationship. In addition, we performed mediation analyses to assess whether anxiety, depression, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility and/or coping styles mediate the relationship between sex and QoL. In all our analyses, age and education were added as covariates. We corrected for multiple testing using False Discovery Rate (FDR). Results: Sex was not associated with QoL (p = .160) in the total sample. Sex was also not associated with QoL within the different stages (CN p = .847, MCI p = .688 and dementia p = .688), or within different types of dementia (FTD p = .895, AD p = .809 and other types of dementia p = .895). Our mediation analyses showed that only anxiety was a significant mediator in the relationship between sex and QoL (p = .010). Conclusion: In our study, there was no relationship between sex and QoL. For patients trying to maintain or improve their QoL, it is important to be aware of the factors that play an important role in QoL.Show less
Most research on autism and coping is focused on parents of children with autism. There is a lack of understanding how individuals with autism cope themselves and how it may relate to their mental...Show moreMost research on autism and coping is focused on parents of children with autism. There is a lack of understanding how individuals with autism cope themselves and how it may relate to their mental health. Every year more people with autism enroll into higher education, which calls for a better understanding of the potential difficulties they may face. This study focused on the relationship between autism, primary coping style and depressive symptoms in a sample of university students with and without a diagnosis of autism. A cross-sectional online survey (n = 222) was administered to explore how these factors relate by using multiple questionnaires measuring coping style, depressive symptoms, autism diagnosis and autism symptoms. Results showed that primary coping style was associated with depressive symptoms. Avoidant coping in particular was related to more depressive symptoms. However, there was no significant link between autism diagnosis and depressive symptoms. The study also found that students with autism were more likely to use avoidant and emotion-focused coping styles compared to problem-focused coping. Furthermore, coping style seems to be responsible for higher levels of depressive symptoms in students with autism, and not the autism diagnosis itself. Implications and alternative explanations for these results are discussed, together with suggestions for future research.Show less
