Illness perception and some psychological and biological features of women with primary Sjögren's syndrome

Delić, Dora. (2018). Illness perception and some psychological and biological features of women with primary Sjögren's syndrome. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Vukasović, Tena].

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Abstract

Faliure to recognize a single or precise cause of the disease triggers a search for an explanation in the field of personality and lifestyle of the afflicted person. The personality structure determines the way in which a person perceives and interprets events in the environment and, to a certain amount, determines the reaction to it. The aim of this study was to establish the correlation between the perception of the disease, the degree of neuroticism and the objective parameters of the primary Sjögren's syndrome (PSS), such as the disease duration and the degree of eye dryness, as well as differences in the degree of neuroticism between the diseased and a comparable group of healthy women. The study was conducted on a sample of 30 outpatients with PSS in the Institute of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology of KBC Split and 30 participants in the comparable group. Data on objective parameters were collected from the medical documentation. Psychological variables were self-assessed by questionnaires, 24 items from the International Personality Item Pool that measure neuroticism and its' facets, followed by the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire for illness perception. Findings indicate that with an increase in disease duration, the degree of eye dryness significantly increases, and an increase in the eye dryness is followed by an increase in the level of worry that participants experience. Results show a statistically significant and positive correlation between the duration of the disease and the age of the participant. A statistically significant and positive correlation between age and perception of symptoms severity was found. With an increase in the level of neuroticism, there is an increase in the emotional impact of PSS to the participant's life. PSS participants achieved significanty higher results on the measures of neuroticism and the facets of depression and anger in comparison to the comparable group.

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