Abstract

VALENTIM, Olga; SANTOS, Célia  and  RIBEIRO, José Pais. Quality of life and illness perception among people with alcohol dependence syndrome. Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2014, vol.15, n.1, pp.261-276. ISSN 1645-0086.  https://doi.org/10.15309/14psd150121.

Alcoholism is a chronic disease. As such, the clinical conditions have predictable effects of degradation of well-being and quality of life. The way that each person cognitively perceives their disease in particular influences their search for help and their quality of life. This descriptive and correlational study was performed the participation of 444 people who have been diagnosed with Alcohol Dependence Syndrome (ADS) for at least one year, with an average age of 45, mostly male, married and unemployed. The instruments used were the questionnaire of socio-demographic characterization, clinical information, the Health Status Questionnaire (SF-36v₂) and the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised-Portuguese version (IPQ-R). This study aimed to contribute to the understanding of quality of life and the perception of illness among people with SDA, associating these variables. The results suggest that, in the different areas of the quality of life scale, the greater involvement occurred in mental health (M= 50.45; SD= 23.40) and in vitality (M= 50.06; SD= 22.53). Participants with moderate identity of the disease showed very negative consequences for their quality of life. Those who better know and understand the symptoms of the disease (identity), who understand it better and have a more negative emotional representation and a worse perception of their quality of life. We see that, on average, people who attend self-help groups record higher values of quality of life and have a less negative emotional representation, consider the disease to be more of a chronic nature, and believe more in their personal control.

Keywords : quality of life; perception of illness; alcoholism.

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