Study of coping styles among dialysis patients

Introduction: Hemodialysis patients face with many challenges in their daily life requiring them to use coping strategies for adjustment. The purpose of this study was to determine the coping styles among Iranian dialysis patients. Materials and Methods: In a case-control study, one hundred consecutive hemodialysis patients referred to Hemodialysis center of Noor hospital, Isfahan, were selected based on the inclusive and exclusive criteria and compared to one hundred normal people randomly selected from population visiting inpatients and they were matched with case group. Data collected by using a demographic questionnaire and the Jalowiec Coping Scale, and then MANCOVA and co-variance were used to analyze the data. Results: The findings of MANCOVA showed significant difference between two groups in coping styles (P= 0.0001). Also, the results of covariance indicated significant differences in three coping styles including confrontive coping style (P= 0.0001), evasive coping style (P= 0.002) and palliative coping style (P= 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in other coping styles between two groups. Conclusion: Generally, the findings confirmed that the hemodialysis patients have low tendency to use confrontive coping style. The commonly used coping strategies among the hemodialysis patients in deal with stresses are evasive and palliative coping styles. Thus, it seems that the hemodialysis patients deal with challenges due to their illness and treatment predominately by using emotion-oriented coping styles. The findings emphasis the role of hemodialysis patients` psychological appraisal from challenges due to their illness and treatment, or new concept called “illness representation” in coping styles.