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Living with huntington’s disease: illness perceptions, coping mechanisms, and spouses’ quality of life

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Abstract

Chronic illness not only affects the life of those suffering from Huntington’s disease but also threatens the quality of life (QOL) of their spouses. In this study, we focus on Huntington’s disease (HD). The impact of HDonthe QOL of spouses has been hardly studied from a behavioral medicine or health psychology perspective. We hypothesize that spouses’ illness perceptions and coping mechanisms will contribute significantly to the prediction of their QOL. Illness perceptions, coping mechanisms, and the QOL of 90 spouses ofpatients with HD were assessed by meansof the Illness Perception Questionnaire, the COPE, and the Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey, respectively. After controlling for demographic and illness-related variables, coping mechanisms explained a significant amount of variance of spouses’ role functioning. Given our results, more empirical and longitudinal research is justified on coping mechanisms and illness perceptions of spouses living with Huntington’s disease.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Centre, P.O. Box 1251, 2340, Oegstgeest, BG, The Netherlands

    D. I. Helder, A. A. Kaptein & G. M. J. Van Kempen

  2. Unit of Psychology, Division of Psychiatry and Psychology, Guy’s, King’s, and St Thomas’ School of Medicine, United Kingdom

    J. Weinman

  3. Department of Medical Statistics, LUMC, The Netherlands

    J. C. Van Houwelingen

  4. Department of Neurology, LUMC, The Netherlands

    R. A. C. Roos

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  1. D. I. Helder
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  2. A. A. Kaptein
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  3. G. M. J. Van Kempen
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  4. J. Weinman
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  5. J. C. Van Houwelingen
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  6. R. A. C. Roos
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Correspondence to D. I. Helder.

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Helder, D.I., Kaptein, A.A., Van Kempen, G.M.J. et al. Living with huntington’s disease: illness perceptions, coping mechanisms, and spouses’ quality of life. Int. J. Behav. Med. 9, 37–52 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327558IJBM0901_03

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327558IJBM0901_03

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