Psychological Profiles and Health Status in Japanese Female Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: The Miyagi Lupus Collaborative Study.

Abstract

and The Miyagi Lupus Study Group 6 Psychological factors have been suspected to be associated with the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and patients health status. However, psychological profiles among Japanese patients with SLE have been poorly understood. We started a prospective study of female patients with SLE in 1995. Using the baseline data from 279 patients in this prospective study, we cross-sectionally analyzed the relations of clinical factors and social factors to psychological factors, and the association between psychological factors and mental and physical health status. We used the Japanese notion ikigal as an indicator of mental health, and ambulatory activity as an indicator of their physical health, respectively.To measure psychological factors, the short-form of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (short EPQ-R) and the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (HLOC) scale were used. Active phase of the disease was significantly related to the neuroticism score in the short EPQ-R. Educational level was inversely related to the scores of powerful others and chance HLOC belief. As for health status, the internal HLOC belief was significantly associated with /k/gal and the chance HLOC belief was inversely associated with ambulatory activity. The scores on the short EPQ-R (Extraversion/lntroversion and Neuroticism) were exclusively related to ikigai. This study suggests that psychological factors may have effects on both the development of SLE and patients health status.

Factors Associated with Healthy Aging among Older Persons in Northeastern Thailand

“…When we compared the perceived health and healthy aging between subjects with various marital statuses, older people who were unmarried scored lower on HAI than others. This result is consistent with those of Palner and Mittelmark (2002), who reported that married people have a higher level of perceived mental health than unmarried people. Being married might confer health advantages that influence perceived health.…”

“…Being married might confer health advantages that influence perceived health. These could be, e.g., emotional support, instrumental support, and social exchange with the partner (Goldman et al 1995; Palner and Mittelmark 2002). However, we also found that older people who were divorced or widowed reported higher HAI scores than those who were unmarried, possibly because they receive emotional support from their children (Zunzunegui et al 2004).…”

Intakes of Vitamin B6 and Dietary Fiber and Clinical Course of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Prospective Study of Japanese Female Patients

“…Details of the study design have been described elsewhere. 12 , 13 This study was approved by the ethical review board of Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine.…”

“…12 In this cohort study, changes in disease activity and atherosclerotic vascular events were chosen as outcome indicators. The associations between several dietary factors and the clinical course of SLE have been analyzed, and a previous analysis of 4-year follow-up data demonstrated an inverse association between vitamin C intake and the risk of active disease.…”

Psychological attitudes and risk of breast cancer in Japan: a prospective study

“…It is a comprehensive concept that reflects emotions such as happiness and life-satisfaction as well as the cognitive evaluation towards one's life [14]. Recently, some researchers have used ''ikigai'' directly and reported its associations with various health conditions [11,12,[14][15][16][17][18][19] including total mortality [17]. It has not been evaluated for its relationship with breast cancer risk, but we hypothesized that it would have a protective effect on breast cancer development.…”