Sense of coherence and self-efficacy as determinants of acceptance of the disease in a group of chronically ill patients

Introduction: Chronic diseases are the most serious social and health problem of societies, a challenge to modern nursing. The best strategy for coping with the disease is acceptance of the disease. It is a determinant of the way of functioning — the higher the degree is, the better the adaptation is and the less severe negative emotions are. The main objective of this research was to establish the determinants of acceptance of the disease in a group of chronically ill patients.

Material and methods: The group consisted of 373 patients chronically ill, including 246 (66%) women and 127 (34%) men. The group was internally differentiated according to socio-demographic variables and health. Questionnaire SOC-29, questionnaire GSES and the AIS scale were used to study the acceptance of the disease of self-efficacy and acceptance of the disease.

Results: The subjects are characterized by different intensity of the sense of coherence and components, the average intensity of self-efficacy and acceptance of the disease.The severity of acceptance of the disease differentiated in terms of
levels of all analyzed personal resources. Regression analysis showed that factors such as high sense of comprehensibility, self-efficacy, and the younger age contribute to the greater acceptance of the disease among the patients.

Conclusions: Sense of coherence and self-efficacy are important factors determining the level of acceptance of the disease. In the process of preparing a patient for the functioning in a chronic disease, special attention needs to be paid to the role of personal resources.