The Status And Related Factors Of Posttraumatic Growth In Stroke Patients

ObjectivesTo understand the level of posttraumatic growth (PTG) in stroke survivors and to identify factors that influences the PTG of the survivors. The aim of this study is to lead the stroke survivors to cope trauma with positive experience that should be payed attention to, and assist clinical nurse to help stroke survivors to reach better state of body and mind, so as to promote the process of rehabilitation of stroke survivors and to improve their quality of life.MethodsThe descriptive study was conducted on220convenient selected stroke survivors being hospitalized in department of Neurology and Rehabilitation two general hospitals of Zhengzhou caused by stroke in February to June2012. The questionnaire of Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire (MCMQ) and the general questionnaire were used to measure stroke survivors’growing social support and coping styles. SPSS (version13.0) was used for statistic description. The statistical methods include statistical description, univariate analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. Results1. Totally220patients meeting the inclusion criteria were investigated, only203questionnaires were retracted, so the effective collect rate was92.27%.2. The average score of post-traumatic growth of stroke survivors was (58.06±13.64). The dimension score from high to low order are the relationships with others, appreciation of life, new possibilities, personal strength, and the lowest score (2.40±0.64) is the dimension of spiritual change.3. The score range of social support was37～84and the average score of it was (56.67±8.268). The family and outside family support score were (24.29±3.023) and (32.38±6.465).4. The average score of confront coping and resignation coping dimension scores were higher than the national norm, and the avoidance coping score was below the national norm. The t-test was statistically significant(P<0.01, P<0.05).5Used the post-traumatic growth score as dependent variable, and sex, age, degree of education, Medical Coping styles and social support as independent variables for multiple linear regressions. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that five major influencing factors for stroke survivors. The regression model included5predictor variables accounting for32.8%of the variance in the total post-traumatic growth.Conclusions1. The phenomenon of post-traumatic growth for stroke survivors exists, but have differences compared with foreign countries. The post-traumatic growth average score for stroke survivors is slightly lower than the foreign research.2. The level of social support for stroke survivors is not higher, and the coping style score is different from the national norm significantly.3. The post-traumatic growth level for stroke survivors is affected by the demographic characteristics such as age, education level, personality type and disease characteristic. 4. The social support system is a contributing factor to the post-traumatic growth for stroke survivors. The care and support from social have great benefits to the patients’physical and mental health.5. The post-traumatic growth level is influenced by their coping style, especially active coping style. It can better forecast the post-traumatic growth.