title: Illness perception and fibromyalgia impact on female patients from Spain and the Netherlands: do cultural differences exist?
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in illness perception and overall impact on fibromyalgia females from Spain and the Netherlands. A total of 325 fibromyalgia females from Spain (54.3 ± 7.1 years) and the Netherlands (51.8 ± 7.2 years) participated in the study. Illness perception and impact of fibromyalgia were assessed by the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire and the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, respectively. Spanish fibromyalgia females perceived more symptoms related to their fibromyalgia (identity) such as nausea, breathlessness, wheezing or fatigue (P < 0.001) and had greater emotional representation (P < 0.01). Dutch fibromyalgia females experienced less timeline (acute/chronic) and consequences (all, P < 0.05), had a better cyclical timeline, personal control, treatment control and illness coherence (all, P < 0.001). Spanish fibromyalgia females reported higher impact of fibromyalgia than Dutch females (61.2 + 14.8 vs. 54.9 + 16.4, respectively; P < 0.001), but the effect size was small (Cohen's d = 0.41) . Impact of fibromyalgia and negative views of fibromyalgia were higher in Spanish fibromyalgia females, whereas Dutch fibromyalgia females presented higher score of positive beliefs about the controllability of the illness. Psychological interventions which help patients to cope with their illness perception might lead to an improvement of the impact of the disease on fibromyalgia females.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Carretera de Alfacar, s/n, CP 18071, Granada, Spain. pedrorumo@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Pedro J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Montero
authors.affiliation: Pain in Motion Research Group, Transcare, Transdisciplinary Pain Management Centre, Groningen, The Netherlands.|Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: C Paul
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Van Wilgen
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Carretera de Alfacar, s/n, CP 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Segura-Jiménez
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cadiz, Cádiz, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carbonell-Baeza
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Carretera de Alfacar, s/n, CP 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delgado-Fernández
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005221:Fatigue / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Diagnosis; FIQ; Illness perception; Pain; Symptomatology