The Association Between Resilience and Mental Health in the Somatically III A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Resilience refers to an individual's positive adaptation to the experience of adversity. The maintenance of mental health is commonly considered a sign of successful coping with adverse conditions. The goal of the present meta-analysis was to investigate the association between resilience and mental health in patients with a somatic illness or health problem. Methods: Studies were included if they reported measures of association between resilience, as assessed using a version of Wagnild and Young's Resilience Scale, and self-reported mental health. A systematic literature search was conducted in the Medline, Web of Science, PsycInfo, PubPsych, and ProQuest databases and in the dissertation catalogue of the German National Library. In addition, a manual search was carried out. The study was registered with PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42017054822). Results: 55 studies involving a total of 15 003 patients were included in the metaanalysis. Assuming a random-effects model, the weighted mean Pearson correlation between resilience and mental health was r = 0.43 (95% confidence interval [0.39; 0.48], p < 0.001). This association was robust, although the heterogeneity among individual effect sizes was substantial (I-2 = 89.6%). Correlations tended to be weaker in unpublished studies than in published ones. Conclusion: Despite substantial heterogeneity across studies, the findings suggest a strong association between resilience and mental health in the somatically ill. In clinical practice, a lack of resilience as a resource for successful coping might indicate a need for psychosocial support during treatment for somatic illness.