hh.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Women’s experiences of coping with chronic widespread pain – a qualitative study
Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Halmstad University, School of Health and Welfare, Centre of Research on Welfare, Health and Sport (CVHI). FoU Spenshult, Halmstad, Sweden & The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6294-538X
Halmstad University, School of Business, Innovation and Sustainability, The Rydberg Laboratory for Applied Sciences (RLAS). FoU Spenshult, Halmstad, Sweden & Lund University, Lund, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8081-579X
Halmstad University, School of Business, Innovation and Sustainability, The Rydberg Laboratory for Applied Sciences (RLAS). FoU Spenshult, Halmstad, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1445-5247
Show others and affiliations
2018 (English)In: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, ISSN 0003-4967, E-ISSN 1468-2060, Vol. 77, p. 1815-1815, article id FRI10737-HPRArticle in journal, Meeting abstract (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background: Approximately ten percent of the population report chronic widespread pain (CWP), the condition is more common among women than men. For most people, the pain interferes with many aspects of every-day life and implies large consequences. However, the group reporting CWP is heterogeneous and there is a need for better understanding of the different strategies used for coping with pain in every-day life.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe women’s experiences of how to cope with CWP.

Methods: The study had a descriptive design with a qualitative content analysis approach. Individual interviews were conducted with 19 women, 31–66 of age, who had reported CWP in a survey 2016. CWP was defined according to the 1990 ACR criteria for fibromyalgia. To be considered chronic, the pain should have persisted for more than three months during the last 12 months. A manifest qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the main question “How do you cope with your chronic widespread pain?” The analysis resulted in four categories.

Results: Women described their coping with CWP in four different ways; to take control, to continue as usual, to follow instructions and to rest. To take control meant to make deliberate decisions to handle everyday day life. It also meant to take care of oneself, to think positive and to exercise at an adequate level. To continue as usual meant not to listen to body signals and either to ignore or accept the pain. To follow instructions meant listening to the health professionals and following advices, but without taking any part of the responsibility for the treatment outcome. To rest meant to perceive an unreasonable need for recovery, to resign and let the pain set the terms for the daily living.

Conclusions: Women expressed different ways of coping with CWP including both active and passive strategies. The coping strategies included two dimensions, where one ranged from actively taking control over the pain, to passively following instructions and the other from actively continue as usual by either accepting or ignoring the pain to passively rest and being mastered by pain.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London: BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, 2018. Vol. 77, p. 1815-1815, article id FRI10737-HPR
Keywords [en]
chronic widespread pain, women’s experiences, qualitative study
National Category
Nursing
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-37135DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2018-eular.3414ISI: 000444351005460OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hh-37135DiVA, id: diva2:1220044
Conference
Annual European Congress of Rheumatology EULAR, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 13-16 June, 2018
Available from: 2018-06-18 Created: 2018-06-18 Last updated: 2021-05-21Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Bergman, StefanBremander, AnnHaglund, EmmaLarsson, Ingrid

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Bergman, StefanBremander, AnnHaglund, EmmaLarsson, Ingrid
By organisation
Centre of Research on Welfare, Health and Sport (CVHI)The Rydberg Laboratory for Applied Sciences (RLAS)
In the same journal
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
Nursing

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 799 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf