Date of Award

1998

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a personality variable, conscientiousness, and a coping style, task-oriented coping, could predict hemodialysis patients' adherence to their fluid intake restrictions. The sample of participants utilized in this study was recruited from three Western New York Artificial Kidney Centers located in Buffalo, New York; Kenmore, New York; and Niagara Falls, New York. Seventy-nine participants completed questionnaires; however, only data from 70 patients were included in the analysis. The null hypothesis stated that there will be no significant difference between hemodialysis patients who are adherent to fluid restrictions and those who are nonadherent to fluid restriction based on the following set of predictors: conscientiousness and task-oriented coping strategies. The null hypothesis was tested by a canonical discriminant analysis. Neither of the predictor variables was found to be significant in predicting the level of treatment adherence. A preliminary regression procedure was conducted to examine the association between the outcome measure, inter-dialytic weight gain (IWG), and the following patient variables: age,Education, years on dialysis, gender, ethnicity, marital status, and diabetic status. None of the demographic variables explained levels of fluid-intake adherence. Further analyses were conducted on all of the personality variables and coping variables in an attempt to identify what, if any, utility they had in predicting treatment adherence outcome in the present sample. Two separate canonical discriminant function analyses were conducted to determine whether all five personality variables (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to change, agreeableness, conscientiousness), and whether three coping styles (task-oriented coping, emotion-oriented coping, avoidance-oriented coping), could predict levels of adherence among hemodialysis patients. It was concluded that none of the personality variables or none of the coping styles differentiated adherent patients from nonadherent patients based on their IWG adherence levels. Conclusions, implications for practice, and recommendations for further research are discussed.

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