Antecedents of uncertainty in persons with arthritis at three points in time in the chronic illness trajectory

The purpose of this research was to describe the relationships among antecedents of uncertainty in chronic illness and how these relationships change over time. A secondary analysis was performed using 411 patients with arthritis related conditions. Over a five year period educational level, marital status, symptom pattern, type of arthritis, length of illness and level of uncertainty were measured at three different times. Multiple regression analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship between symptom pattern and uncertainty, educational level and uncertainty, and marital status and uncertainty at all three points in time. Pearson's product-moment correlations revealed a significant relationship between educational level and symptom pattern, and marital status and symptom pattern. These data suggest that certain patient characteristics may be identified that place patients at higher risk for uncertainty during chronic illness.Digitized from a paper copy provided by the Arizona Health Sciences Library