Acceptance of chronic illness in psoriasis vulgaris patients

BACKGROUND: Acceptance of an illness is regarded as a considerable problem in patients with chronic diseases. Lack of acceptance can lead to lower adherence to medical treatment and delayed clinical improvement. Psoriasis, being a chronic skin disease, is known to cause considerable distress to patients. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether selected demographic factors and personal resources have an impact on acceptance of illness in psoriasis vulgaris patients. METHODS: Self-reported data on acceptance of illness, self-efficacy, health locus of control, optimism and coping strategies were collected from 100 psoriasis vulgaris inpatients and PASI was calculated by a dermatologist. The following measures were employed: acceptance of illness scale, generalized self-efficacy scale, multidimensional health locus of control scale, life orientation test and mental adjustment to disease scale. RESULTS: Physical factors such as sex, age, disease duration and severity, and family history of psoriasis had no effect on acceptance of illness. However, based on multiple regression analysis, higher levels of optimism, lower conviction of others' influence on one's health and the less frequently employed coping strategy concentration on emotions, together with more severe disease expressed by PASI, were correlated with higher acceptance of disease in psoriasis patients. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained seem to confirm that personal resources play an important role in acceptance of chronic illness. Enhancement of optimism, and minimizing one's conviction that one's health depends on others could lead to higher acceptance of illness.