The longitudinal impact of a chronic physical health condition on subjective well-being.

Abstract

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.

Reciprocal association between social support and psychological distress in chronic physical health conditions: A random intercept cross‐lagged panel model

“…Past research indicated that nearly half of the individuals living with a physical CHC experience elevated psychological distress levels at least over 2 years following CHC onset (Debnar et al, 2020, 2021). The present study showed that a physical CHC still affected individuals' psychological adaptation process and perceived availability of social support several years after the onset.…”

“…Moreover, many of the past studies were limited by the absence of pre-event data (Bonanno & Diminich, 2013). Studies that used pre-event data showed that some persons living with a CHC suffer from higher psychological distress already years before the actual diagnosis of the CHC (Debnar et al, 2020(Debnar et al, , 2021.…”

“…More precisely, the studies explored heterogenous psychological distress trajectories, subjective well‐being profiles, and profile transition across 6 years. Especially at 1 and 4 years after the CHC onset change in mental health was identified (Debnar et al, 2020, 2021).…”

Chronic disease onset and wellbeing development: longitudinal analysis and the role of healthcare access

“… 8 , 10 A third stream of studies reported differential outcomes, where some groups achieved more favourable long-term wellbeing development than others. 9 , 14 Given the mixed evidence of previous research, it is of particular interest to investigate the development of wellbeing after illness onset, examining both immediate level changes and longitudinal trend changes. While several studies have analyzed long-term effects of chronic illness by comparing pre- and post-onset wellbeing levels, 8 , 10 , 12 longitudinal analyses including both immediate level and long-term trend effects are scarce.…”

“…While several studies have analyzed long-term effects of chronic illness by comparing pre- and post-onset wellbeing levels, 8 , 10 , 12 longitudinal analyses including both immediate level and long-term trend effects are scarce. 14 However, joint analyses of level and trend effects are crucial to disentangle immediate and long-term impacts of a chronic disease onset.…”