The Relationship Among Uncertainty In Illness, Social Support And Coping Style About Family Members Of Patients With Chronic Disease

Objectives To delineate the current situation of uncertainty in illness on family members of patients with chronic disease, to clarify the relevant factors, and to investigate the relationship of uncertainty in illness with social support and coping style.Methods Non-experimental study was used in this study.247 cases of family members from medical systems of four hospitals in Yanji City were surveyed with accidental sampling. The measurement instruments includes four parts:Inventory of demographic characteristics about family members, Parent's Perception Uncertainty Scale-Family in Chinese version, Social Support Rating Scale and Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire. The data was analyzed with descriptive statistical methods, t-test, One-Way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman's correlation by SPSS 13.0.Results (1) The total score of uncertainty in illness is more than 50% of the PPUS-FM score and is at a high level; the average score of unpredictability is the highest and the average score of lack of information is the lowest among the four factors.(2) There is no statistical significance of uncertainty in illness and its four factors on gender, age and whether have spouse (P>0.05); there are statistical significances of unpredictability on race and residence place (P<0.05); there are statistical significances of complexity on profession and family income per month (P<0.05); except the factor of lack of information, there are statistical significances of uncertainty in illness and other factors on education (P<0.05)(3) Uncertainty in illness, ambiguity and complexity are negatively correlated with social support, objective support, subjective support and the utilization of support (P<0.05); lack of information is negatively correlated with social support and subjective support (P<0.05).(4) Uncertainty in illness, ambiguity, complexity and unpredictability are negatively correlated with positive coping (P<0.05); uncertainty in illness, complexity and lack of information are positively correlated with negative coping (P<0.05)Conclusions Family members of patients with chronic disease have high level of uncertainty in illness. When they have lower social support and use negative coping style, there is higher level of uncertainty in illness. It suggests that nurses also need to pay attention to the level of social support and coping style about family members and help them get more useful social resources and establish positive coping style. Thus the high level of uncertainty in illness can be reduced and their quality of life can be improved.