Relationship of illness severity with health- and life-satisfaction in patients with chronic heart failure undergoing a rehabilitation program

European guidelines for cardiovascular rehabilitation underline the importance of psychological factors in the achievement of improved clinical conditions in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Nevertheless, little research has been done on psychosocial variables that may positively affect the impact of rehabilitation. Aim of this study was to investigate the possible influence of illness-representation (IR) and self-efficacy-beliefs (SE) on the impact exerted by illness severity on health- and lifesatisfaction in patients undergoing a rehabilitation program because of heart failure due to chronic CVD. This study had a cross-sectional design, and involved 116 patients (mean-age=65.6; SD=10.0; 79.3% men). Illness severity was measured, in terms of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), at admission in the cardiovascular rehabilitation department, whereas psychological factors were assessed 1 week later. Results showed that the relationships among LVEF and health- and life-satisfaction were mediated by IR and cardiac-risk-factors-SE (X2(4)=3.32, p=n.s.). Findings underlined the importance of working on IR and SE to improve health- and lifesatisfaction in patients with CVD.