Quality of life in chronic pain patients: illness- and wellness-focused coping as moderators

Chronic pain is a health problem that significantly influences patients' lives, causing functional, social, socioeconomic, and emotional changes that impact quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to evaluate which variables (e.g., psychological morbidity, illness representations, pain, and coping) contribute to QoL and to analyse the moderating role of illness- and wellness-focused coping in the relationship between pain interference and Qol, in chronic pain patients. A sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Chronic Pain Coping Inventory, the Short Form Health Survey, and the Brief Pain Inventory were completed by 103 patients with chronic pain. Greater use of wellness-focused coping and being professionally active were associated with better physical QoL. Cognitive representations and illness-focused coping contributed to physical QoL, and psychological morbidity contributed to mental QoL. Illness-focused coping and wellness-focused coping moderated the relationship between pain interference and physical QoL, but not with mental QoL. Since pain interference was positively related to psychological morbidity, and the latter was negatively related to QoL, it is extremely important to evaluate and promote patients' coping strategies that are focused on well-being to improve QoL. Results from this study underline the relevance of a multidisciplinary approach to chronic pain and the need to account for psychological morbidity and coping strategies in intervention programs to promote QoL in chronic pain patients.