Recurrent symptoms: well-being and management

Although most older adults report one or more symptoms of a chronic health problem, little attention has been paid to the report of these symptoms ove r time and whether different symptom patterns affect well-being and symptom management in community-dwelling elders. Therefore, this study examined wh ether community-dwelling older adults in Ohio, U.S.A. who experience consis tently recurring (a) arthritis or (b) cardiopulmonary symptoms report more depression and worse self-assessed health and show more symptom management than those who report inconsistent symptoms and if there are differences in well-being and symptom management over time. This secondary analysis used longitudinal data collected from a random sample of 387 older adults who re ported their health complaints in four interviews over 27 months time. Subj ects were included in this analysis if they reported either arthritis (n = 321) or cardiopulmonary (n = 232) symptoms at one or more times during 27 m onths, and then were classified as having either consistent (occurring at a ll four time points) or intermittent/inconsistent (occurring at three or fe wer time points) symptoms. Data analysis included t-tests, chi-square tests , and Repeated Measures ANOVA. Results indicate that those with consistent symptoms reported greater depression and worse self-assessed health than th ose with less consistent symptoms. Specifically, those with consistent card iopulmonary symptoms became more depressed over time. Those with consistent cardiopulmonary complaints were more likely than those with an inconsisten t pattern to use an illness label to describe their symptoms. Those with co nsistent arthritis symptoms tended to use more self-care at all time points , to label their symptoms as an illness, and were more likely to consult a physician as their symptoms persisted. The implications of symptom recurren ce on well-being, symptom management and the concept chronicity are discuss ed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.