https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1980-9294
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Abstract
Purpose
Social participation is a key determinant of healthy aging, yet little is known about how people with Parkinson’s disease manage social living. This study describes individual differences in social self-management practices and their association with symptom severity and health quality of life.
Methods
People with Parkinson’s disease (N = 90) completed measures of healthy routines, activities and relationships, symptom severity, and health related quality of life. Cluster analysis identified profiles of social self-management practices. Analysis of variance tested differences between profiles in symptom severity and health quality of life.
Results
Participants clustered into one of seven groups according to different combinations of three practices: health resources utilization, activities in home and community, and social support relationships. The healthiest cluster engaged equally in all three practices at above sample average degree of engagement. Four clusters that engaged at or above sample average in activities in home and community experienced less health problems than three clusters that engaged below average. Variation in aspects of social lifestyle unrelated to health appeared also to contribute to profile diversity.
Conclusion
Findings provide insight into similarity and variation in how people with Parkinson’s disease engage with social self-management resources and point to person-centered interventions.
Social self-management is a biopsychosocial construct to identify and describe self-care practices that engage one’s social resources for managing healthful daily living.
People with Parkinson’s disease vary in their profiles of engaging in social self-management practices in daily living, and this variability relates to severity of symptoms and health quality of life.
Learning how to identify health-centered social self-management practices may help people with Parkinson’s disease to focus on the healthfulness of their own practices.
Learning how to strategically engage one’s social resources as part of self-care may help people with Parkinson’s disease to master managing their health and well-being in daily life.
Implications for Rehabilitation
Acknowledgements
The authors extend their gratitude to research assistants, staff, and visiting scholars in the Health Quality of Life Lab at Tufts University for invaluable contributions to this study.
Disclosure statement
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.