Adaptation of the Mishel Uncertainty of Illness Scale (MUIS) for chronic patients in Italy

The association between cataract surgery and mental health in older adults: a review

BACKGROUND

Although cataract surgery has been proposed as a potentially modifiable protective factor for enhancing emotional well-being in cataract patients, studies examining the relationship between anxiety or depression and cataract surgery have yielded inconsistent findings. This review summarizes existing evidence to establish whether cataract surgery is associated with depression and anxiety in older adults.

METHODS

A literature search was conducted across PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, and Embase databases. An initial screening by abstracts and titles was performed, followed by a review and assessment of the methodological quality of the relevant full papers, and final inclusion of 44 studies were deemed eligible for inclusion in this review.

RESULTS

Among 44 included studies, 36 studies (81.8%) were observational studies concerning the association of cataract surgery or cataracts with anxiety or depression, four studies (9.1%) were interventional studies, and four studies (9.1%) were reviews. Cataract surgery notably enhances the mental health of individuals with impaired vision. However, the multifaceted nature of psychological well-being, influenced by various factors, suggests that cataract surgery may not address all aspects comprehensively. Additionally, preoperative anxiety and depression significantly impact cataract surgery outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Vision impairment in older adults is closely associated with increased symptoms of depression and anxiety. While surgical intervention for cataracts improves these symptoms, it might be less effective for mental disorders with multifactorial causes. Notably, anxiety or depression poses challenges to successful preoperative and intraoperative cataract surgeries.

Correlations between uncertainty in illness and anxiety, depression and quality of life in patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis: A cross-sectional study

Aim

To investigate the uncertainty in illness, anxiety, depression and quality of life in patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis and confirm the correlations between these variables.

Design

A cross‐sectional study was conducted among 396 patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis in four tertiary hospitals in China.

Methods

Uncertainty in illness was measured by Mishel's uncertainty in illness scale. The scores of self‐rating anxiety scale, self‐rating depression scale and medical outcomes study short form 36 were collected and compared with available norms. The Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated to investigate the correlation between uncertainties in illness with these vital variables.

Results

The mean score of uncertainty in illness was 78.16 out of 160. Compared with the norm, patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis had a statistically significantly lower score of depression and higher scores of most domains of quality of life. Uncertainty in illness is corrected with anxiety, depression positively and with quality of life negatively.

Turkish adaptation of the Mishel uncertainty in illness scale-community form

PURPOSE

The study aims to conduct the Turkish validity and reliability study of the Mishel uncertainty in illness scale-community form.

DESIGN AND METHODS

This is a study with a methodological design. It was carried out in a family health center in a province in the Black Sea Region between May and October 2019. The sample of the study consisted of 479 individuals with chronic diseases. The data were analyzed with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

FINDINGS

The Cronbach's alpha was found to be 0.79. The fit indices of the 20-item scale with three-factor structure are at an acceptable level (root mean square error of approximation: 0.056; comparative fit index: 0.926; incremental fix index: 0.927; goodness of fit index: 0.918; Tucker-Lewis index: 0.915; adjusted goodness of fit index: 0.896; χ² /SD: 2.481, p < 0.001).

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

The level of uncertainty revealed by the scale gives information about the chronic disease management of individuals.

The Relationship Between Uncertainty in Illness and Quality of Life in Patients With Heart Failure: Multiple Mediating Effects of Perceived Stress and Coping Strategies

BACKGROUND

Previous investigators have demonstrated that uncertainty in illness is associated with quality of life (QoL) in patients with chronic illness. However, little is known about the mechanism underlying the relationship in patients with heart failure.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to examine the multiple mediating effects of perceived stress and coping strategies on the relationship between uncertainty in illness and QoL in patients with heart failure.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional study in 302 patients with heart failure recruited at a general hospital in China from October 2016 to September 2017. Uncertainty in illness, perceived stress, coping strategies, and QoL were assessed using self-reported questionnaires. The multiple mediation model was tested using the PROCESS macro for SPSS.

RESULTS

Of the 302 patients, 51.7% had poor physical QoL and 45.7% had poor mental QoL (physical component summary or mental component summary score of <50 points). Uncertainty in illness had a significantly negative indirect effect on mental QoL through perceived stress and acceptance-resignation (indirect effect, -0.02; 95% confidence interval, -0.04 to -0.01). Uncertainty in illness also had a significantly negative indirect effect on mental QoL via perceived stress only (indirect effect, -0.18; 95% confidence interval, -0.26 to -0.09).

CONCLUSIONS

Poor QoL is prevalent in patients with heart failure. Perceived stress and acceptance-resignation are important mediating factors between uncertainty in illness and mental QoL in patients with heart failure. Interventions aimed at reducing perceived stress and acceptance-resignation coping may be beneficial for improving mental QoL in patients with heart failure.

Modeling and processing up-to-dateness of patient information in probabilistic therapy decision support

OBJECTIVES

Probabilistic modeling of a patient's situation with the goal of providing calculated therapy recommendations can improve the decision making of interdisciplinary teams. Relevant information entities and direct causal dependencies, as well as uncertainty, must be formally described. Possible therapy options, tailored to the patient, can be inferred from the clinical data using these descriptions. However, there are several avoidable factors of uncertainty influencing the accuracy of the inference. For instance, inaccuracy may emerge from outdated information. In general, probabilistic models, e.g. Bayesian Networks can depict the causality and relations of individual information entities, but in general cannot evaluate individual entities concerning their up-to-dateness. The goal of the work at hand is to model diagnostic up-to-dateness, which can reasonably adjust the influence of outdated diagnostic information to improve the inference results of clinical decision models.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

We analyzed 68 laryngeal cancer cases and modeled the state of up-to-dateness of different diagnostic modalities. All cases were used for cross-validation. 55 cases were used to train the model, 13 for testing. Each diagnostic procedure involved in the decision making process of these cases was associated with a specific threshold for the time the information is considered up-to-date, i.e. reliable. Based on this threshold, outdated findings could be identified and their impact on probabilistic calculations could be reduced. We applied the model for reducing the weight of outdated patient data in the computation of TNM stagings for the 13 test cases and compared the results to the manually derived TNM stagings in the patient files.

RESULTS

With the implementation of these weights in the laryngeal cancer model, we increased the accuracy of the TNM calculation from 0.61 (8 out of 13 cases correct) to 0.76 (10 out of 13 cases correct).

CONCLUSION

Decision delay may cause specific patient data to be outdated. This can cause contradictory or false information and impair calculations for clinical decision support. Our approach demonstrates that the accuracy of Bayesian Network models can be improved when pre-processing the patient-specific data and evaluating their up-to-dateness with reduced weights on outdated information.

Relationship between motivation, adherence to diet, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms and quality of life in individuals with celiac disease

OBJECTIVE

Celiac disease is an immuno-mediated pathogenesis disease characterised by a malabsorption of nutrients that causes partial or total atrophy of intestinal villi and the alteration of the absorbing epithelium. Several studies have demonstrated the presence of anxiety and depression symptoms and poor quality of life in people with celiac disease and emphasised the importance of diet in modulating these effects. However, few studies have investigated the role of motivation and the relationship it has with these factors. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap and investigate the relationship between motivation, diet adherence, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms and physical functioning in people with celiac disease.

METHODS

Questionnaires were administered to 433 people with celiac disease aged between 18 and 79 years (M = 32.73, DS = 11.54) to measure anxiety symptoms (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Y2), depression symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory), physical functioning (Scale of Physical Functioning), adherence to diet (Celiac Dietary Adherence Test) and motivation (Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire).

RESULTS

We used Structural Equation Modelling to examine the relationships of variables. Results revealed a direct relationship between motivation and diet adherence, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms and physical functioning. They also illustrated the role played by diet adherence in mediating the relationship between motivation and anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms and physical functioning.

CONCLUSION

The results highlight the vital role played by motivation in people; indeed, analysis showed that motivation correlated to adherence to diet. It is therefore necessary to take this factor into account in the treatment of individuals with celiac disease.

Asociación entre el nivel de incertidumbre y el tipo de enfermedad en pacientes hospitalizados en UCI

Objetivo: determinar la asociación entre el nivel de incertidumbre y el tipo de enfermedad en pacientes hospitalizados en unidades de cuidado intensivo de Cartagena, Colombia.Materiales y métodos: estudio observacional de corte transversal.La muestra estuvo constituida por 72 pacientes a quienes les fue aplicada la escala de incertidumbre de Merle Mishel. Se estimaron las asociaciones entre el tipo de enfermedad y la incertidumbre mediante la prueba no paramétrica Kruskal-Wallis.Resultados: la edad promedio de los participantes fue 58,3 años (DE = 19,4), con predominio del sexo femenino en el 54,2 %, la mediana de estancia hospitalaria correspondió a seis días. El 27,8 % presentó enfermedades cardiovasculares, seguidas de las metabólicas en un 19,4 %. El nivel de incertidumbre fue regular en el 63,9 % y alto en el 34,7 %. Respecto a la asociación entre variables, no se encontraron diferencias significativas entre los puntajes promedios de la escala según tipo de enfermedad (Prob. de Kruskal-Wallis > 0,05).Conclusión: la complejidad de la situación, las expectativas relacionadas con el compromiso de la salud, la presentación de los síntomas y los tratamientos médicos o quirúrgicos instaurados originaron incertidumbre independiente del tipo de enfermedad

Illness uncertainty, anxiety and depression in Chinese patients with glaucoma or cataract

This study evaluated illness uncertainty, anxiety and depression among glaucoma patients and cataract patients in China. 263 patients with primary glaucoma and 100 patients with age-related cataract were recruited sequentially from Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center between October 2013 and March 2016. All the participants completed questionnaires for socio-demographic information, Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale (MUIS) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). 25 of the 263 glaucoma patients and 21 of the100 cataract patients finished two copies of the same questionnaires before and after surgery. Statistics were analyzed using SPSS17.0 software. We observed that glaucoma patients had higher MUIS and HADS score than did cataract patients. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated risk factors for illness uncertainty, anxiety and depression for glaucoma patients were high HADS score, poor visual acuity (VA) in the better eye and education level respectively. Risk factors for the same parameters of cataract patients were high HADS-A score, poor VA in the better eye and high illness uncertainty respectively. Scores of MUIS and HADS both decreased after surgery, but the change in HADS score among glaucoma patients was not significant. Clinical workers should take these factors into account to improve therapy, especially for glaucoma patients who undergo surgery.

Factors Associated With Uncertainty in Illness Among People With Parkinson's Disease

People with Parkinson's disease (PD) reported to experience uncertainty because of gradually progressive disease characteristics with no cure, and variably manifesting and unpredictable symptoms. This study was designed to identify illness-related variables influencing uncertainty in PD patients and to analyze direct and indirect paths between these variables. Data were collected from 206 participants using a structured questionnaire. Path analysis revealed the direct and/or indirect effects of economic status, disease severity, social support, and resilience on uncertainty in people with PD. Disease severity, social support, and resilience were shown to have significant direct effects on uncertainty. Economic status and disease severity had indirect effects on uncertainty, which were mediated by social support. Disease severity and social support also had indirect effects on uncertainty, which were mediated by resilience. Therefore, the efforts of health care professionals should be directed not only toward managing PD symptoms, but also toward facilitating social support and resilience.

The relationship between coping, emotion regulation, and quality of life of patients on dialysis

Previous studies have investigated constructs that facilitate adaptation to chronic disease and improve quality of life and constructs that lead to psychopathological complications. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of coping and emotional regulation on the quality of life of patients on dialysis. Three questionnaires were administered to 78 patients on dialysis: Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced, Short Form (36), and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Regressions analyses indicated that age, Rumination, Positive Refocusing, Avoidance Strategies, Approach to the Problem, and Transcendent Orientation predicted Physical Health. With regard to Mental Health, the predictors were gender, Self-Blame, Acceptance, Rumination, Positive Reappraisal, Catastrophizing, Avoidance Strategies, and Transcendent Orientation. This study confirms the relationship between emotional regulation, coping, and quality of life. The results highlight the need for total care of the patients, including an assessment of both physical state and psychological functioning in order to promote total well-being.

Coping, uncertainty and health-related quality of life as determinants of anxiety and depression on a sample of hospitalized cardiac patients in Southern Italy

OBJECTIVES

Being hospitalized often causes psychological distress and compromises patients' psychological well-being, thereby augmenting the burden of illness. The aim of this paper is to investigate two possible determinants of anxiety and depression among hospitalized cardiac patients, namely uncertainty in illness, and coping strategies, controlling for the perceived health-related quality of life, and distinguishing between borderline and pathological levels of anxiety and depression.

METHODS

Data on anxiety, depression, coping style, uncertainty in illness and self-assessed quality of life concerning 200 cardiac inpatients from a university hospital were collected through validated questionnaires. A biprobit analysis, whose dependent variables are hospital anxiety and depression, was carried out.

RESULTS

Uncertainty in illness has a significant impact on the possibility of crossing the borderline level of both anxiety and depression. The coping strategy of Positive Reappraisal and Growth is inversely and significantly correlated to anxiety and depression, be it borderline or pathological; the Restraint Coping strategy is positively and significantly related to borderline anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

The reduction of uncertainty in illness and the development of adequate coping strategies should be promoted in order to decrease the patients' risk of crossing the borderline threshold of anxiety and depression.