Chronic diseases, the most prevalent of which include cardiovascular diseases (such as heart attacks and stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma), and diabetes, tend to be of long duration. Although chronic diseases are most often associated with older age groups, evidence shows that around 17 million deaths related to chronic health conditions occur each year in individuals under the age of 70 (World Health organization, 2023). There is a need to further improve chronic disease prevention, early diagnosis, interventions, treatment, control, and management. Chronic diseases create stress in patients, and inability to cope and self-manage chronic health conditions may negatively impact health-related outcomes and patients’ perceived health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Many factors influence the ability of patients to cope with chronic disease. Moreover, mental and physical health have been found to be closely related, with strong evidence supporting a bidirectional relationship between mental health conditions, specifically depression and anxiety, and physical health outcomes. Poor mental health has negative effects on the health condition of patients as well as their perceived HRQOL (Steinmo et al., 2014). On top of mental health, other patient factors such as resilience, sense of coherence, health literacy, physical functioning, social support, and spiritual health play important roles in how well patients cope with their chronic health conditions. (Cheng et al., 2019; Cheng et al., 2020).

The main focus of the eight papers in this issue of the Journal of Nursing Research is on managing and coping with chronic health conditions, with topics including resilience, sense of coherence, mental health, spiritual health, health literacy, and HRQOL discussed. A cross-sectional survey by Liu et al. found the prevalence of depression in patients with end-stage failure who need haemodialysis to be higher than in the general population. A cross-sectional study by Lee et al. on patients with heart failure found sense of coherence to mediate the effects of functional states on HRQOL. In addition, a cross-sectional study by Cheng et al. demonstrated personal strength and social competence to influence the resilience and emotional dimensions of HRQOL in patients with heart failure. Furthermore, a randomized-controlled trial (RCT) by Huang et al. found a health literacy education program to have positive effects on health literacy, depression, and renal function in patents with stages 3 ~ 4 chronic kidney disease.

The papers in this issue provide insights into the factors that influence the ability of patients to cope with their chronic health conditions. The knowledge generated from these studies can provide directions for nurses to develop interventions to strengthen patient coping abilities by enhancing factors such as sense of coherence, resilience, self-care ability, health literacy, and family support. More rigorous multi-centre RCTs with longitudinal follow up are needed to confirm the effectiveness of these interventions.

Cheng C., Yang C.-Y., Inder K., Chan S. W.-C. (2020). Illness perceptions, coping strategies, and quality of life in people with multiple chronic conditions. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(2), 145–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12540 Cheng C., Inder K., Chan S. W.-C. (2019). Patients' experiences of coping with multiple chronic conditions: A meta-ethnography of qualitative work. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 28(1), 54–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12544 Steinmo S., Hagger-Johnson G., Shahab L. (2014). Bidirectional association between mental health and physical activity in older adults: Whitehall II prospective cohort study. Preventive Medicine, 66, 74–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.06.005 World Health Organization. (2023, September 16). Noncommunicable diseases. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases