Ragny Lindqvist

Psychometric assessment of the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire (LSQ) and a comparison of a randomised sample of Swedish women and those suffering from breast cancer.

In a previous study, the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire (LSQ) was developed especially for women with breast cancer. The aim of the present study was to assess the psychometric properties of the LSQ in a randomized sample of Swedish women and to compare the perceived quality of life with that of women suffering from breast cancer. Another aim was to relate the result to educational background. A total of 257 women aged 20–80, randomly selected from the Swedish population register, answered the LSQ. The result was compared with that from 362 women aged 27–78 suffering from breast cancer. The construct validity was calculated by a principal component analysis, and the reliability by Cronbach α-coefficients. It was concluded that the LSQ has acceptable validity and reliability. The result also showed that the women with breast cancer rated their perceived quality of life higher than women in general with respect to the quality of personal relations and the quality of daily activities, but lower for physical symptoms. In the comparison with respect to educational background, women with university education rated their quality of life higher than women with other types of education. The testing of the LSQ will continue.

Relationships between coping, coping resources and quality of life in patients with chronic illness: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVES The original purpose of the study was to determine differences between two groups of patients with chronic illness (ESRD and CHF) regarding the following study variables: coping, sense of coherence (SOC), self-efficacy and quality of life (QOL). Following this, the aim was to explore the relationships between demographic variables (sex, age, educational level and living area) and QOL as well as between coping, SOC, self-efficacy and QOL for the combined sample of patients with ESRD and CHF. METHODS A comparative and correlative design was used with a sample of 100 patients (n = 41 ESRD, n = 59 CHF). The data were collected during 2004, using four standardized questionnaires and regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS No significant differences were found between the two groups. Positive correlations were identified between SOC, general self-efficacy and QOL, whereas negative correlations emerge between emotion-focused coping, SOC, general self-efficacy and QOL. SOC, general self-efficacy and emotion-focused coping explained 40% of the variance in QOL. Those with low SOC and general self-efficacy showed negative correlations between emotion-focused coping and QOL, whereas no such correlations were shown for those with high values on SOC and general self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS The present results on coping and QOL correspond with previous research regarding how other groups with chronic illness handled their daily life. Preliminary results indicate that how individuals tackle their present situation is more important than which chronic illness they have. Women used more emotion-focused coping than men, which constitute an important finding for further research.

A comparative correlational study of coping strategies and quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure and the general Swedish population

The aim was to compare coping strategies and quality of life (QoL) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) with such strategies and QOL in persons from two general Swedish populations and to investigate relationships between personal characteristics and coping strategies.