Illness uncertainty, resilience, and perceived social support among patients with moyamoya disease: a cross-sectional...

The present study aims to investigate the levels of illness uncertainty in patients with moyamoya disease and to determine the association of socio-demographic characteristics, perceived social support and resilience with illness uncertainty in patients with moyamoya disease.

A cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling was conducted in two hospitals in China from August to December 2023. A socio-demographic characteristics questionnaire, the Chinese versions of Mishel's Unsurety in Disease Scale (MUIS), the Chinese version of Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and the Chinese version of Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were used to perform this research. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 24.0 statistical software. The t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), pearson correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to identify associated factors.

A total of 263 patients with moyamoya disease were recruited in this survey. The score of illness uncertainty was at a moderate level of (100.03 ± 18.59). The present study identified a negative correlation between illness uncertainty with resilience perceived social support. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that gender, occupation, education level, resilience and perceived social support were the related factors of illness uncertainty.

Patients with moyamoya disease experienced moderate disease uncertainty on average, which was related to gender, occupation, education level, resilience and perceived social support. Future research is needed to better explore the complex relationships between illness uncertainty, resilience, and perceived social support with different types of moyamoya disease using longitudinal research.