Psychological distress and cardiovascular disease: results from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey

Abstract

Aims: The objective of this study was to examine the burden of psychological distress among individuals with different forms of heart disease in a large representative sample of adults.

Methods and results: Data were obtained from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, which is a large annual survey of the US non-institutionalized civilian population. Psychological distress was assessed with a standardized questionnaire (K6) and heart disease diagnoses were based on self-report. Among non-diseased individuals, the estimated prevalence of psychological distress was 2.8%, whereas the estimates were 10, 6.4, and 4.1% among those with congestive heart failure (CHF), myocardial infarction (MI), and coronary heart disease (CHD), respectively. Over 1 million individuals with one or more of these conditions are estimated to experience psychological distress. However, only 31-35% of the participants with heart disease and psychological distress have visited a mental health professional. The logistic regression model results indicate that MI (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.4-3.0) and CHF (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.8-5.1) are significantly associated with psychological distress.

Conclusion: These findings imply that psychological distress is a significant comorbidity of cardiovascular disease. Other investigations have demonstrated a link between psychological distress and morbidity and mortality. Taken together, these findings provide the impetus for future investigations that assess the role that a medical and mental health care professional intervention may have in altering these outcomes when targeted at this distress.