A one year study of coping, social support and quality of life in Parkinson's disease

The role of coping and social support in the quality of life for Parkinson' s Disease CPD) patients is not well understood. Most studies are cross-sect ional and concentrate on depression as an outcome measure. The aim of the p resent study was to explore the role of coping and social support in qualit y of life for patients with PD. Self-report measures were completed by 105 sufferers of PD; 75 completed the same questionnaire a year later. Patients had the most problems with social function, followed by problems with mobi lity control and psychological autonomy and communication. After controllin g for age, gender and illness duration, the number of PD symptoms predicted mobility control, social functioning and psychological function. Passive c oping explained additional variance in most functional domains with more pa ssive coping being related to increased problems. The quality of life was h ighly stable over the course of the year. Active coping was related to supe rior psychological functioning one year later. In fact, this was the only c oping and social support variable related to functioning after one year, wh en controlling for previous functions. The results are discussed in terms o f the importance of symptom management in PD.