The relationship between the quality of life, hardiness and parameters of autonomic balance

Abstract

It can be supposed that a person’s subjective description of their state of health and their attitude towards life’s problems are connected in a way that is not entirely apparent with the peculiarities of internal control over physiological processes and therefore has prognostic value when it comes to assessing a person’s health in general, as well as very early symptoms of changes in their body’s regulatory processes. It was of interest to evaluate the prognostic significance of the two tests most often used by health psychologists: the Short Form-36 Health Status Survey (SF-36) and the Hardiness Test (Maddi, 1987, 1998). As an indicator of the state of internal control, the correlative activity of two parts of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) – the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) – was chosen. Our study sample consisted of 59 students and office workers between the ages of 18 and 70 in the city of Yelets (with a mean age of 25.1 ± 11.0 years. An interconnection (high, significant correlation of moderate strength) was established only between the PSNS and RP (Role-Physical Functioning) scores. We have shown that a person’s own feeling about the state of their health is not connected with the important parameters that describe the state of the internal environment. The only correlation between a person’s own description and the actual inner state arises when they are describing their real responsibilities and how they carry them out.