The Comparison of Illness Perception Treatment Adherence and Coping of Coronary Artery Pottery Patients Before and After Angioplasty in Imam Khomeini Hospital Ardabil 2014

Abstract

Abstract: Background and aim: The study of illness perception is important because of its effects on health behavior. In coronary heart disease, treatment adherence is essential in treatment and prevention. Non adherence to coronary heart disease treatment imposes such a huge cost to the health system annually and result to poor outcomes. Accordingly this study aimed to compare the illness perception, treatment adherence and coping of coronary artery patients before and after angioplasty.Methods: In this descriptive prospective observational study, illness perception, treatment adherence and coping of 140 coronary artery patients were evaluated at three time-points of before angioplasty, at the hospital discharge and 1-3 months later. Data was collected by means of the demographic questionnaire, Illness Perception questionnaire, Moriskey Treatment Adherence and Carver's brief COPE scales then analyzed using SPSS version 13 by repeated measured ANOVA and Pearson correlations. The level of significance was set at 0.05.Results: In the comparison of illness perception dimensions at three time-points, mean difference of Identity, Timeline, Consequences, Illness Coherence, Timeline Cyclical and Emotional Representation were significant. Mean scores of illness treatment differed significantly. Amongst coping mechanisms, all mean scores differed significantly except venting and self-blame.Conclusion: In overall, accurate perception of illness and its causes result to improved treatment adherence and effective coping. Therefore, we purport that post treatment health behaviors are predictable by assessing patients’ illness related beliefs in advance.