Relationships of illness severity with depression, health- and life-satisfaction in patients with cardiovascular diseases

Guidelines for cardiovascular rehabilitation from different countries underline the importance of psychological variables in the achievement of improved clinical conditions and quality of life in patients with cardiovascular dinase (CVD). Nevertheless, little research has been done in order to identify the factors that mostly affect patients’ well-being. Aim of this study was to investigate the contribution carried by illness-perception (IP) and cardiac-risk-factors-selfefficacy (SE) to the impact exerted by illness-severity on depression, health- and lifesatisfaction in patients affected by CVD undergoing rehabilitation. The study had a crosssectional design and involved 172 patients(131 men;mean-age¼66.43, SD¼9.99). Illnessseverity was measured in terms of left-ventricular-ejection-fraction (LVEF) at admission in the cardiovascular rehabilitation department, whereas psychological factors were assessed one week later. Results from path analyses showed that the relationships among LVEF and depression, health- and life-satisfaction were mediated by IP and SE (2(1)¼2.31, p¼n.s.). Findings underlined the importance of working on IP and SE to improve well-being in patients with CVD.