Passive coping strategies but not physical function are associated with worse mental health, in women with chronic widespread pain – a mixed method study

Background: Chronic widespread pain (CWP) is a common condition (approximately 10% prevalence), that affects women twice as often as men. There is a lack of knowledge in how different coping strategies relates to health status during CWP development in a general population. Objectives: To explore different ways of coping with CWP and to relate the different coping strategies to health-related factors, before and after developing CWP. Methods: A sequential explorative mixed methods study including 19 women 45-67 of age, who had reported CWP in a survey 2016, but not in 1995. Individual interviews were analysed with a phenomenographic approach, and resulted in four categories of coping strategies. These categories were further explored with regard to four dimensions of health status (physical function, bodily pain, vitality and mental health) as measured by SF-36 (0-100, a lower score indicates more disability) and sleep problems measured both in 1995, and 2016. Results: The qualitative analysis revealed four categories representing different coping strategies, where each woman was labelled by the most dominant category; the mastering woman, the persistent woman, the compliant woman and the conquered woman. The first two categories emerged as being active coping strategies, and the latter two as passive. Women with passive strategies reported significantly lower vitality (median 57.5 vs 75, p=0.007) and worse mental health (median 54 vs 93, p=0.021) in 1995, before they had developed CWP compared with those with active coping strategies. No differences were seen between the groups on physical function, bodily pain or sleep. In 2016, there were still a difference between the passive and active group regarding mental health (median 56 vs 80, p=0.022), but not for vitality (median 35 vs 40, p=0.707). No differences were seen between the groups on physical function or bodily pain. All eight women with passive strategies reported problems with sleep in 2016, as compared to 6 of the 11 women with active strategies (p=0.045). Conclusion: Women that reported CWP in 2016, but not in 1995, described both active and passive coping strategies. The qualitative findings were associated with differences in vitality and mental health already in 1995, before they had developed CWP. Further, those with passive coping strategies reported worse health with regard to mental health and sleep problems in 2016. Interestingly, the groups did not differ in bodily pain or physical fun