Relationship between Stressful Events and the Severity of Symptoms in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Mediating role of Personality Traits

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between stressful events and the severity of symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with the mediating role of personality traits..

The present study was descriptive and structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this study included all patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who referred to the health center of Kosar Hospital in Semnan for a period of 1 year from April to March 2017. A total of 205 people were selected by random sampling method and completed questionnaires of personality traits and stressful events. Finally, after data collection, the data were analyzed by Pearson correlation and structural equation modeling using SPSSV19 and LISRELV8.80 software.

The results showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between neurosis and stressful events with the severity of the disease, while other personality traits had a negative and significant relationship with the severity of the disease (P <0.01). Stressful events had a positive and significant relationship with psychosis, while it had a negative and significant relationship with other personality traits (P<0.01). The results also showed that the variable of stressful events due to personality traits has an indirect effect (0.37) and a significant effect on the severity of symptoms.

The findings of this study indicate that the variables of personality traits and stressful events were related to the severity of symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had a direct and indirect effect on it. Therefore, experts' knowledge of these variables can help reduce the severity of symptoms in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.