Role of older adult's illness schemata in coping with mild cognitive impairment.

OBJECTIVE: 1) To describe the illness representations of older persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI); 2) to describe how older adults cope with MCI; 3) to examine the relationships between illness representations and coping.

METHODS: Sixty-three older adults with MCI completed questionnaires on demographic and health information, beliefs about MCI (Illness Perception Questionnaire-MCI), and coping with MCI (brief COPE and Self-care Behaviors Checklist).

RESULTS: Participants endorsed an average of 7 symptoms that they experienced and believed were related to MCI and an average of 7 potential causes of MCI. Participants tended to believe MCI was chronic, not cyclic, and controllable, but they differed in their beliefs about the consequences, understandability and emotional impact of MCI. Participants used many dementia prevention behaviors and memory aids, some problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies, and few dysfunctional coping strategies. Cluster analysis identified three clusters of beliefs about MCI: "few symptoms and positive beliefs," "moderate symptoms and positive beliefs," and "many symptoms and negative beliefs." Those in the "many symptoms and negative beliefs" cluster had significantly more negative beliefs about the consequences, unpredictability (cyclic timeline), and emotional impact of MCI than those in the other clusters. Participants in the "few symptoms and positive beliefs" cluster used significantly fewer memory aids, problem-focused coping strategies, emotion-focused coping strategies, and dysfunctional coping than those in the other two clusters.

CONCLUSION: As suggested by the Common Sense Model, older adults with MCI have beliefs about their MCI and these beliefs are associated with how older adults cope with MCI.