Objective: To compare how PwP coped in two situations along their lives: (a) Parkinson disease diagnosis and (b) COVID-19 pandemic, and how their environment played a role in their coping style.

Background: Coping is the way people adapt to situations, which requires an extra effort to respond to the internal or external demands provoked by a stressful event and can change from one context/time to another [1,2].

Two stressful situations for PwP were when they were diagnosed and when COVID-19 pandemic was declared; in pandemic PwP had to cope with extra difficulties to manage their health in conditions like social isolation [3,4].

Method: Method: Mixed method research, quantitative dominance.

Sample: 69 PwP from Argentina (61) and other Spanish-speaking countries (8), mean years from diagnosis (yd) 9.1(±5.9), range 0.5-38.

Instrument: Brief-COPE [5], Spanish version (factorial analysis: 14 original factors (14f) grouped in 4 second order factors (4f) [2,6]), completed in person or online with the instruction to be completed twice (d and c situations): 1. d: when they were diagnosed with Parkinson and 2. c: when COVID-19 pandemic was declared.

Data analysis: Statistical description and correlations (Person r, p<.05, normalized data) [7].

Ethical consideration: Helsinki Declaration (WMA, 1964 and its amendments).

Results: Mean and standard deviations (4f) showed a tendency to the middle of the range in cognitive coping and social support coping (both d & c), but tend to place between the first and second quartile in coping block and spiritual support (both d & c). Differences between 4f d & c did not show statistical significance.

Factor correlations (4f) were significative between coping strategies d and c: cognitive coping (r=0.6896 p<.0001), social support coping (r=0.69822 p<.0001), coping block (r=0.712927 p<.0001) and spiritual support (r0.669771 p<.0001).

There were no relationships between coping and yd except for a low and inverse correlation with social support coping (both d & c) (r=-0.305348 p<.05 and r=-0.264018 p<.05, respectively).

Conclusion: PwP coping strategies were coherent along the two stressing situations (d & c).

Social support and cognitive strategies were the most important resources PwP used to deal with the situations. Coping block was less chosen by them.

Results are limited but show insights to continue researching on how PwP cope with stressful situations and the role their environment plays, to develop healthy environments for them.

References: [1] Lazarus RS, Folkman S. Stress, appraisal and coping. Springer Publishing Company, Inc. 1984
[2] García FE, Barraza-Peña CG, Wlodarczyk A, Alvear-Carrasco M, Reyes-Reyes A. Psychometric properties of the Brief-COPE for the evaluation of coping strategies in the Chilean population. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica. 2018;31(22). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41155-018-0102-3
[3] Simieli L, Santinelli FB, Costa EC, Kuroda MH, Oliveira LR, Penedo T, et al. Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic by Brazilian People With Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Front Psychol [Internet]. 2022;13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.718313
[4] Vila‐Viçosa D, Clemente A, Pona‐Ferreira F, Leitão M, Bouça‐Machado R, Kauppila LA, et al. Unsupervised Walking Activity Assessment Reveals COVID ‐19 Impact on Parkinson’s Disease Patients. Mov Disord. 2021;36(3):531-2. https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.28514
[5] Carver CS. You want to measure coping but your protocol’s too long: consider the brief COPE. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 1997;4(1):92-100. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm0401_6
[6] Moran C, Landero R, González MT. COPE-28: un análisis psicométrico de la versión en español del Brief COPE. Universitas Psychologica. 2010;9(2):543-52. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1657-92672010000200020
[7] Microsoft Excel 365 (https://www.microsoft.com/es-ar/microsoft-365/excel) and Google Colab (https://colab.research.google.com/?utm_source=scs-index) – a Google interactive environment which works with Python (https://www.python.org/), using the following libraries: Pandas (https://pandas.pydata.org/), Numpy (https://numpy.org/), Scipy (https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy-0.14.0/reference/index.html), Sklearn (https://scikit-learn.org/stable/), Statsmodels.api (https://www.statsmodels.org/stable/api.html) and Pingouin (https://pingouin-stats.org/build/html/index.html)

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/coping-strategies-in-people-with-parkinson-disease-pwp/