Living With Diabetes: A Study of Illness Representation, Spiritual Coping, Psychological Distress and Medication Adherence

Abstract

The study explored how patient’s representation of diabetes, psychological distress and the use of spiritual coping influence their medication adherence. A total of 196 diabetics were sampled from the Tema General Hospital using the purposive sampling technique. The measures used included the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), Spiritual Coping subscale of the Africultural Coping System Inventory, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21(DASS-21) and the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5). Analysis using hierarchical multiple regressions and the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient showed that, illness representation components: illness consequence, personal control and emotional representation predicted medication adherence. On the other hand chronic timeline, illness coherence, emotional representation and consequences were the illness representation components that predicted psychological distress. Psychological distress, spiritual coping and demographic variables did not predict medication adherence. Again, spiritual coping did not mediate the relationship between illness representation and medication adherence. The findings of the research indicate the need to incorporate patients’ illness representation in diabetes management.