Resilience and Illness Denial as Predicting Factors for Adherent Behaviour

Abstract

Lack of adherence in patients with chronic illnesses is significant burden for health care system all over the world. Therefore, it is important to find which factors do contribute to improve adherent behaviour. The aim of this study was to find out how resilience and illness denial predicts adherent behaviour in patients with chronic illnesses in primary health care.In this quantitative cross-sectional study participated 202 adults in Latvia with diagnosed chronic illness. Participants filled sociodemographic data questionnaire – gender, age, and diagnosis, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD–RISC–25, Connor Davidson, 2003), Illness Denial Questionnaire-Short Form (IDQ-SF, Rossi Ferrario et al., 2019), and Adherent behaviour questionnaire (Skaldere-Darmudasa Sudraba, 2023) – nine items measure assessing to what extent individual with chronic illness follows doctor’s or specialist’s recommendation to reduce symptoms of their chronic illness and improve health condition. Items are rated in 4 – point Likert scale. The result of this study shows a tendency that patients with chronic illness and higher resilience use less denial according to their chronic illness and use more adherent behaviour. Higher denial points to less adherent behaviour which means less following to the doctor’s and specialist’s recommendation about the intake of medication, physical activities, diet, and rest.