Marital satisfaction in couples with rheumatoid arthritis

Objective, To understand correlates of marital satisfaction in persons with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and their spouses. Methods. in a cross-sectional survey, 79 persons with RA and 78 spouses com pleted the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale, the revised Ways of Coping Qu estionnaire scales, and the Health Assessment Questionnaire. A series of li near regression analyses were then performed to investigate correlates of m arital satisfaction for patients and spouses. Results. Seventy-six percent of patients were women, Mean patient age was 5 6.5 years (+/- 12.5 years), number of years married was 30.7 (+/- 13.5), an d duration of RA was 14.2 years (+/-4.0 years). Demographic features of spo uses resembled those of patients. Patients and spouses were generally satis fied with their marriages. Linear regression analyses showed that lower mar ital satisfaction in patients was associated with higher education level (P < 0.01), patient's greater use of escape into fantasy (P < 0.01), patient' s greater use of finding blame (P < 0.05), and spouse's higher use of escap e into fantasy (P < 0.001). Spouses less satisfied with their marriages wer e more likely to use passive acceptance (P < 0.05) and less likely to find blame (P < 0.05). Female spouses were less likely to be satisfied in their marriages (P < 0.01) than male spouses. Conclusions. This study indicates that certain passive coping styles are as sociated with lower marital satisfaction in persons with RA and their spous es. More highly educated patients and female spouses are also less satisfie d in their marriages. These cross-sectional correlations should not be rega rded as causal and should be examined further in longitudinal studies.