Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jun;43(3):402-410.
doi: 10.1007/s10865-020-00139-0. Epub 2020 Jan 29.

Partner presence in the emergency department and adherence to daily cardiovascular medications in patients evaluated for acute coronary syndrome

Talea Cornelius  1 , Jeffrey L Birk  2 , Kyle Bourassa  3   4 , Redeana C Umland  2 , Ian M Kronish  2
Affiliations

Partner presence in the emergency department and adherence to daily cardiovascular medications in patients evaluated for acute coronary syndrome

Talea Cornelius et al. J Behav Med. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Stressful health situations may compromise spouses'/partners' ability to provide patients with support. We tested whether partner status/partner presence in the emergency department (ED) were associated with patients' adherence to daily cardiovascular medications and whether effects differed by age/gender. Participants were 189 patients evaluated for acute coronary syndrome at an urban academic ED (MAge = 62.18; 57.1% male; 58.7% Hispanic). Participants self-reported partner status/partner presence. Medication adherence was measured using an electronic pillcap. For male patients, having a partner was associated with increased adherence in the first month post-discharge, OR 1.94, p < .001, but having a partner present in the ED was associated with lower adherence, OR 0.33, p < .001. The opposite effect was evident for female patients. Partner status/partner presence in the ED are associated with medication adherence during the first month post discharge, with opposing effects for male and female patients.

Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome; Emergency department; Marriage; Medication adherence; Social support.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Partner status and partner presence predicting odds of electronically monitored adherence to daily cardiovascular medication in the first month post-hospital discharge. Note. Error bars represent 95% Confidence Intervals.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Interaction between gender, partner status, and partner presence predicting odds of electronically monitored adherence to daily cardiovascular medication in the first month post-hospital discharge. Note. Error bars represent 95% Confidence Intervals.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Interaction between age, partner status, and partner presence predicting odds of electronically monitored adherence to daily cardiovascular medication in the first month post-hospital discharge. Note. Error bars represent 95% Confidence Intervals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. August KJ, & Sorkin DH (2010). Marital status and gender differences in managing a chronic illness: The function of health-related social control. Social science & medicine, 71(10), 1831–1838. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Birk J, Kronish I, Chang B, Cornelius T, Abdalla M, Schwartz J, … Edmondson D (2019). The Impact of Cardiac-induced Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms on Cardiovascular Outcomes: Design and Rationale of the Prospective Observational Reactions to Acute Care and Hospitalizations (ReACH) Study. Health Psychology Bulletin, 3(1), 10–20. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Charlson M, Szatrowski TP, Peterson J, & Gold J (1994). Validation of a combined comorbidity index. Journal of clinical epidemiology, 47(11), 1245–1251. - PubMed
    1. Cornelius T, Derby L, Dong M, & Edmondson D (2019). The impact of support provided by close others in the emergency department on threat perceptions. Psychology & health, 1–18. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cornelius T, Gettens K, Lenz E, Wojtanowski AC, Foster GD, & Gorin AA (2018). How Prescriptive Support Affects Weight Loss in Weight-Loss Intervention Participants and their Untreated Spouses. Health Psychology. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources