TITLE:
Psychosocial Health Status of Patients Diagnosed with Chronic Illnesses in Jordan
AUTHORS:
Dana D. Al Abeiat, Ayman M. Hamdan-Mansour, Bushra Mustafa Ghannam, Saleh N. Azzeghaiby, Laila Y. Dawood
KEYWORDS:
Psychosocial Health, Chronic Illnesses, Jordan
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Medical Psychology,
Vol.3 No.4,
July
4,
2014
ABSTRACT: Background: The comorbidity between chronic physical conditions and psychosocial health consequences is becoming a research interest for researchers in the field. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychosocial health status of patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses in Jordan. Methods: A cross sectional survey using 806 patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses has been used to collect data in regards to depressive symptoms, psychological distress, coping, optimism, life satisfaction, and perceive social support. Results: 17.5% of the patients reported that they had moderate to severe depressive symptoms, and about 50% of them had high level of optimism and life satisfaction, moderate level of effectiveness of coping skills, psychological distress, and perceived social support from family, friends and others. There were significant association between patients’ age and their scores on perception of social support from family, friends and others, life satisfaction, and psychological distress (p > 0.05). While, male and female patients were different in their depressive symptoms (t = －2.57, p = 0.01), perceived social support from others (t = －2.06, p = 0.04), and optimism (t = 2.29, p = 0.02). Also, patients had differences in their depressive symptoms, perceived social support from friends, others and friends, optimism, life satisfaction, and psychological distress related to their medical diagnoses (p