Coping as predictor of psychiatric functioning and pain in patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)

Coping is recognized as an increasingly important consideration in the management of chronic disease. Prayer, hostility and John Henryism appeared to be the most frequently discussed but least understood coping strategies associated with health outcomes in African Americans. The current study evaluated if prayer, hostility and John Henryism (JH) predicted psychiatric morbidity and pain in 67 adult African American patients with Sickle Cell Disease. We used a set of simple regressions to analyze continuous predictors (hostility and JH) and Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) to analyze the categorical predictor (prayer). Each of the coping variables was a statistically significant predictor of psychiatric morbidities. However, coping did not exert effects on the absolute value of pain. In summary, coping influenced reactions to pain but not reports of pain itself. Keywords Coping * African Americans * Pain * Prayer * Hostility