Proactive coping poststroke: psychometric properties of the Utrecht Proactive Coping Competence Scale

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Stroke significantly impacts patients' health-related quality of life (HRQOL).
• Proactive coping strategies may play a crucial role in patient recovery and well-being post-stroke.
• Assessing proactive coping in stroke survivors requires validated psychometric instruments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Utrecht Proactive Coping Competence scale (UPCC) in patients with stroke.
• To investigate the relationship between proactive coping, HRQOL, and patient characteristics.
• To establish the UPCC as a reliable and valid measure for this population.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study was conducted with 55 stroke patients in Dutch inpatient and outpatient settings.
• Reliability and convergent validity of the UPCC were assessed using established methods.
• Associations between UPCC scores, the Utrecht Coping List (UCL), the Stroke Specific Quality of Life scale (SS-QOL-12), and patient characteristics were examined.

Main Results:

• The UPCC demonstrated excellent reliability (Cronbach's α=.95) with no floor/ceiling effects or skewed distributions.
• Convergent validity was supported by moderate correlations with specific UCL subscales.
• Proactive coping showed moderate to strong positive associations with HRQOL domains, outperforming other coping measures.

Conclusions:

• The UPCC is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing proactive coping in stroke patients.
• Proactive coping is positively associated with improved health-related quality of life in this population.
• Future research should aim to confirm these findings and explore interventions to enhance proactive coping skills.