Research results

Last year, Emma Cole invited Emphasis readers to take part in research around hope, optimism and quality of life with PH. In September, she showcased the results at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) international congress, and here she shares them with you.

Hi everyone, situations and can adjust their hopes in situations that can’t be changed. Some of you may remember reading my invitation to take part in some research on hope, optimism and quality of life in the spring edition of Emphasis last year. Firstly, I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone that took part. I managed to collect lots of data which was really useful in helping to understand the factors that affect life with PH. Attending the ERS conference was a great way to get information out to doctors, nurses, researchers and other professionals from around the world, and hopefully helped to increase awareness and inspire others to undertake research in this area. Now I’d also like to take the opportunity to share some of the findings with you. The data showed that there were significant relationships between hope and health-related quality of life and also between optimism and health-related quality of life. More specifically, people that were found to have higher hope and optimism levels reported having better health-related quality of life than people with lower levels of hope and optimism. Age or gender did not seem to have any effect but people using oxygen reported themselves to be less hopeful than those than those that did not use oxygen. There were also a few differences between people with different types of PH but the reasons behind this were not fully understood. Hope and optimism are thought to affect health-related quality of life through differences in our thought processes and perceptions of our situation and goals. Previous research has shown that quality of life is very important to people with PH and this study is the first step towards using health psychology to help people with the disease achieve their goal of a better quality of life. Now there is evidence to show that psychological factors such as hope and optimism are linked to health-related quality of life in PH, it may be possible for researchers to start looking at whether interventions could enhance hope and optimism levels and whether this creates an improvement in health-related quality of life for people with PH. Researchers could also study symptoms and physical well-being to see if similar links can be found and whether psychological interventions may have the potential to improve the physical aspects of the disease as well. By taking part in research you are helping people to understand the factors that underpin the experience of living with PH. The more we know, the better we can attempt to develop ways to help improve the lives of people with this condition. So once again, a huge thank you to everyone that took part and I hope you will continue to take part in research in the future. Emma Cole MSc Health Psychology

People who are more optimistic are thought to be able to adapt better to challenging