Objective. The onset of a chronic health condition (CHC) can have a severe impact on an individual's life, affecting mental and physical health. This study's goal was to investigate psychological distress trajectories starting from one year before to four years after the onset of a physical CHC. The specific aims were to identify the number and shape of longitudinal psychological distress trajectories and to test health-related, psychological, social, and demographic factors predicting these trajectories.Methods. Two samples were drawn from the Swiss Household Panel dataset: a CHC sample (n = 361) and a 1 to 1 matched comparison sample of healthy individuals. Latent growth mixture modeling was used to identify psychological distress trajectories over six years. Factors predicting trajectories were then tested using multinomial logistic regression.Results. Four psychological distress trajectories were identified in the CHC sample: resilience (53.9%), chronic (22.2%), delayed (15.0%), and recovery (8.9%). In the comparison sample, two trajectories were identified: low psychological distress (90%) and elevated psychological distress (10%). Protective factors associated with resilient trajectory membership in the CHC sample are higher emotional stability, higher relationship satisfaction, and male gender.Conclusion. Individuals living with a CHC have an increased risk of vulnerability compared to a sample of healthy individuals. This advocates awareness of mental health issues following the onset of a CHC. In this regard, biopsychosocial factors (gender, emotional stability, and relationship satisfaction) offer prevention and intervention opportunities for more vulnerable individuals.
Objective: Chronic health conditions (CHC) can have severe impacts on an individual's life, affecting well-being and mental health. Nonetheless, individuals can show different response patterns of psychological adaptation following a CHC onset. This study aimed to identify profiles of subjective well-being (SWB) at one year before (T-1), one year after (T+1), and four years after (T+4) the onset of a physical CHC using seven indicators (health satisfaction, life satisfaction, energy, joy, worry, sadness, anger), examine transitions between the identified profiles, and determine predicting factors of these transitions. Method: Latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis was conducted using a sample of 357 participants reporting a physical CHC drawn from the Swiss Household Panel dataset. Results: Three profiles were identified at T-1: low, high, and very high SWB. At T+1 and T+4, a fourth vulnerable profile emerged. Transition analysis showed that, overall, the most probable transition was to stay in similar profiles across time.However, recovery towards higher SWB profiles and delayed reaction towards lower SWB profiles appeared between one and four years following the CHC onset. Factors predicting recovery patterns from low to high SWB are better health status, fewer negative life events, and financial scarcity, whereas lower emotional stability was related to a delayed reaction from high to low SWB.
Conclusion:This study underlines the importance of personal factors in the adaptation following CHC onset. Routine assessment of personality traits would enable to identify individuals at greater risk of lower SWB following the onset of a CHC.
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