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
. 2025 May 27:12:1561505.
doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1561505. eCollection 2025.

The influence of psychological intervention-assisted cardiac rehabilitation on kinesiophobia in individuals diagnosed with coronary heart disease

Xiaoping Guo #  1 , Wei Li #  1 , Jing Sun  1 , Yanzhuo Ma  1
Affiliations

The influence of psychological intervention-assisted cardiac rehabilitation on kinesiophobia in individuals diagnosed with coronary heart disease

Xiaoping Guo et al. Front Cardiovasc Med. .

Abstract

Objective: Kinesiophobia is prevalent among patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). This study aimed to explore whether psychologically-informed cardiac rehabilitation (CR) could positively influence the reduction of kinesiophobia in CHD patients.

Methods: A total of 86 CHD patients, who sought treatment at Bethune International Peace Hospital between June 2022 and June 2023, were selected and divided into two groups: a psychological intervention group comprising 42 patients and a conventional CR group of 44 patients. The conventional CR group received standard CR intervention, whereas the psychological intervention group underwent CR intervention augmented with psychological support. The effectiveness of these interventions was evaluated using the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Multidimensional Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (MSES), the TSK-Heart (for assessing kinesiophobia in cardiac patients), and the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) scores.

Results: Following the intervention, the SDS and SAS scores of the psychological intervention group were higher than those of the conventional CR group. The MSES dimension scores and the total score of the psychological intervention group were elevated in comparison to the CR group. Conversely, the TSK-Heart dimension scores and the total score of the psychological intervention group were diminished relative to the CR group. Additionally, the SF-36 dimension scores and total score of the psychological intervention group surpassed those of the CR group post-intervention.

Conclusion: The integration of psychologically-supported CR into the rehabilitation regimen for CHD patients effectively mitigates negative emotions, enhances self-efficacy, and markedly reduces kinesiophobia, thus significantly improving overall quality of life.

Keywords: cardiac rehabilitation; coronary heart disease; kinesiophobia; psychological intervention; quality of life.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Experimental flowchart.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Timmis A, Townsend N, Gale CP, Torbica A, Lettino M, Petersen SE, et al. European Society of Cardiology: cardiovascular disease statistics 2019. Eur Heart J. (2020) 41(1):12–85. 10.1093/eurheartj/ehz859 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Katta N, Loethen T, Lavie CJ, Alpert MA. Obesity and coronary heart disease: epidemiology, pathology, and coronary artery imaging. Curr Probl Cardiol. (2021) 46(3):100655. 10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2020.100655 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Doenst T, Thiele H, Haasenritter J, Wahlers T, Massberg S, Haverich A. The treatment of coronary artery disease. Dtsch Arztebl Int. (2022) 119(42):716–23. 10.3238/arztebl.m2022.0277 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tao S, Tang X, Yu L, Li L, Zhang G, Zhang L, et al. Prognosis of coronary heart disease after percutaneous coronary intervention: a bibliometric analysis over the period 2004–2022. Eur J Med Res. (2023) 28(1):311. 10.1186/s40001-023-01220-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kook H, Joo HJ, Park JH, Hong SJ, Yu CW, Lim D-S. A comparison between drug-eluting stent implantation and drug-coated balloon angioplasty in patients with left main bifurcation in-stent restenotic lesions. BMC Cardiovasc Disord. (2020) 20(1):83. 10.1186/s12872-020-01381-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources