The impacts of resilience on the association between illness uncertainty and sleep quality among Chinese women with systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Objective: Our study aimed to investigate the effect of illness uncertainty on sleep quality among SLE women. Meanwhile, the role of resilience was explored in the association of illness uncertainty with sleep quality.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out from 2017 to 2018 in Liaoning province, China. Totally, 204 (81.6%) completed questionnaires concerning Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale for Adults (MUIS-A), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISR), demographic, and clinical characteristics were collected. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the associations of illness uncertainty, resilience, and the illness uncertainty*resilience interaction with sleep quality. The mediating role of resilience was explored by applying asymptotic and resampling strategies.

Results: The mean of PSQI score was 10.71 ± 3.68. Illness uncertainty was negatively related to sleep quality. The illness uncertainty*resilience interaction term was significantly associated with sleep quality. The effect of illness uncertainty on sleep quality was gradually weaken from low (1 SD below the mean, β = 0.151, P < 0.001), mean (β = 0.294, P < 0.001), to high (1 SD above the mean, β = 0.437, P < 0.001) levels of resilience. Meanwhile, resilience partially mediated the association of illness uncertainty with sleep quality (a*b = 0.2383, BCa 95% CI: 0.1021, 0.3842).

Conclusions: Poor sleep quality was the most frequent among SLE women. Illness uncertainty and resilience may be related factors associated with sleep quality. Thus, in practice, more targeted information support should be offered to increase illness perception. Moreover, more targeted psychological interventions based on resilience should be provided to enhance resilience in order to improve sleep qualityKey Points• Illness uncertainty may be related factor associated with sleep quality and negatively affected sleep quality among women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).• Resilience acted as a moderator in the relationship between illness uncertainty and sleep quality among women with SLE. Meanwhile, resilience partially mediated the association of illness uncertainty with sleep quality.• More targeted information supports and psychological interventions based on resilience should be provided to enhance illness perception and resilience in order to improve sleep quality.

Keywords: Illness uncertainty; Resilience; Sleep quality; Systemic lupus erythematosus; Women.