Dissertationsvorhaben

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of patients' presurgery illness beliefs and cardiac risk factors on health-related outcomes 3 months following cardiac surgery. Methods: In a prospective design, 56 patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery (coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), heart valve surgery, or a combined procedure) were approached on admission to hospital and reassessed 3 months after surgery. Presurgery assessment included cardiac risk factors and measures of illness severity. Illness beliefs were assessed using the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R). Outcome measures included levels of illness-related disability, physical functioning, psychological well-being, and depressive symptoms. Results: Physical functioning of patients improved 3 months after surgery, while disability and psychological well-being did not change significantly. Cardiac risk factors prior to surgery were unrelated to the outcomes 3 months later. With the use of hierarchical multiple regression analyses, after controlling for demographic variables and baseline scores of outcome variables, patients' beliefs about their illness predicted disability (adjusted R2=.350, P