Optimism/hope associated with low anxiety in patients with advanced heart disease controlling for standardized cardiac confounders

Anxiety is an under-investigated comorbidity in heart disease patients. Optimism/hope is a character strength that indicates confidence or favorable expectation about the future. Previous research has consistently reported optimal health outcomes among optimists. However, many studies have lacked ad...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health psychology 2020-11, Vol.25 (13-14), p.2520-2527
Main Authors: Ai, Amy L, Carretta, Henry
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Psychological
Anxiety
Anxiety Disorders
Cardiac surgery
Cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular diseases
Comorbidity
Health behavior
Health status
Heart
Heart Diseases
Hope
Humans
Hypotheses
Optimism
Surgeons
Surgery
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Summary:Anxiety is an under-investigated comorbidity in heart disease patients. Optimism/hope is a character strength that indicates confidence or favorable expectation about the future. Previous research has consistently reported optimal health outcomes among optimists. However, many studies have lacked adjustment for medical confounders and/or used small clinical samples. To bridge this gap, we tested the hypothesis that optimism/hope was inversely related to anxiety in 400+ patients with advanced heart disease during the stressful waiting period prior to open-heart surgery. The findings supported the hypothesis after controlling for general health, illness impact, behavioral risks, and cardiac medical indices used by surgeons.
ISSN:1359-1053
1461-7277
1461-7277
DOI:10.1177/1359105319864633