[Significance of the social anamnesis in the rehabilitation of coronary patients]

Abstract

We studied some indicators of the course of the disease in male patients (N = 45; x age = 46 +/- 5.6 years) who after first myocardial infarction (MI) spent 4-6 weeks in a rehabilitation clinic. The investigation is done to test the following hypotheses: 1. Social distress during the preinfarction phase is related to coping with the disease (namely anxiety) and to some risk factors (overweight, low-density-Lipoprotein). 2. Participation in a stress-management training that aims at enhancement of coping with social distress has positive effects on the course of the disease. This is particularly true in those who are under strong social pressure. Two panel waves, at the beginning and at the end of stationary rehabilitation, where we gathered data on social and standard risk factors, confirmed our hypotheses in part. Anxiety after MI was related to social distress before MI. For both, anxiety and low-density-lipoprotein, we found a significant interaction effect of social distress and stress-management training as a result of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA; SPSS). Given the small sample size the results should be taken as preliminary and should not be overinterpreted.