The worse we feel, the more intensively we need to stick together: a qualitative study of couples' emotional co-regulation of the challenge of multimorbidity.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Being faced with multimorbidity (i.e., being diagnosed with at least two chronic conditions), is not only demanding in terms of following complicated medical regimes and changing health behaviors. The changes and threats involved also provoke emotional responses in the patients but also in their romantic partners. This study aims at exploring the ways of emotional co-regulation that couples facing multimorbidity express when interviewed together.

Method

N = 15 opposite sex couples with one multimorbid patient after an acute health crisis that led to hospitalization were asked in a semi-structured interview about how they found ways to deal with the health situation, what they would recommend to other couples in a similar situation, and how they regulated

SUBMITTER: Horn AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10450955 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature