(Press-News.org) Patients admitted to hospital with obstructed heart arteries were three times more likely to experience complications when they were in hospital if they felt they were not in control of their condition, according to research published in the October issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.
However, persistent anxiety on its own appeared to have little effect on whether patients experienced complications or not.
Researchers looked at 171 patients admitted to hospitals in the USA, Australia and New Zealand with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), following them for two years. They concluded that giving patients greater perceived control of their heart illness could reduce complications after ACS.
"Coronary heart disease is the leading single cause of death in Australia and the USA, accounting for almost one in five deaths and leading to 50,000 hospital admissions a year in Australia and 1.76 million a year in the USA" says lead author Sharon McKinley, Professor of Critical Care Nursing at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
Almost two-thirds of the patients studied were men (64 per cent), with an average age of 69 years.
The research team spoke to all the participants at three, 12 and 24 months and gave them a free telephone number to call if they attended hospital for suspected ACS symptoms.
Experienced cardiovascular nurses trained in data abstraction for the purposes of the study then examined the patients' records for a range of clinical characteristics and complications.
The anxiety and perceived control measures were obtained in face-to-face interviews when patients were enrolled in the study and by mailed questionnaires with follow-up telephone interviews at three and 12 months.
Key findings included:
Fifteen per cent of the patients experienced complications when they were in hospital following admission for ACS, mainly due to an abnormal heart beat or reduced blood supply to the heart.
Half of the patients studied were anxious at baseline and 56 per cent at three months. Over a third of patients (37 per cent) displayed anxiety at both points and were categorised as persistently anxious.
58 per cent of patients had low perceived control and these patients tended to be younger, have a higher body mass index and a higher pulse rate on admission.
73 per cent of the patients with persistent anxiety had low perceived control and the remaining 27 per cent had high perceived control.
Patients with low perceived control over their heart conditions were 3.4 times as likely to experience in-hospital complications as patients with high levels of control.
"The findings that low perceived control, but not persistent anxiety, were predictive of in-hospital complications after ACS has two key implications for nursing practice and policy" says Professor McKinley.
"Firstly, it may be possible for nurses to increase cardiac patients' perception of control over their illness and secondly, increasing perceived control may reduce the risk of complications after ACS."
###Notes to editors
Complications after acute coronary syndrome are reduced by perceived control of cardiac illness. McKinley et al. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 68.10, pp2320– 2330 (October 2012). doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05933.x
The Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN) is a world-leading international peer reviewed Journal. It targets readers who are committed to advancing practice and professional development on the basis of new knowledge and evidence. JAN contributes to the advancement of evidence-based nursing, midwifery and healthcare by disseminating high quality research and scholarship of contemporary relevance and with potential to advance knowledge for practice, education, management or policy. http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/JAN
Wiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, with strengths in every major academic and professional field and partnerships with many of the world's leading societies. Wiley-Blackwell publishes nearly 1,500 peer-reviewed journals and 1,500+ new books annually in print and online, as well as databases, major reference works and laboratory protocols. For more information, please visit www.wileyblackwell.com or our new online platform, Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), one of the world's most extensive multidisciplinary collections of online resources, covering life, health, social and physical sciences, and humanities.
Perceived control affects complication rates in patients with acute coronary syndrome
2012-09-13
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Migratory moths profit from their journey
2012-09-13
It isn't only birds that move south as autumn approaches. Some insects also live their lives on the same principle. A new study of migratory insects has just been published that shows that a considerably higher number of insects survive and migrate back south in the autumn than was previously believed.
"These results are really exciting, because we have managed to show that it really is profitable for insects to migrate north at the start of the summer", says Lars Pettersson, a Reader at the Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden.
The findings help to fundamentally ...
Maturitas publishes clinical guide on low-dose vaginal estrogens for vaginal atrophy
2012-09-13
Amsterdam, September 12, 2012 - Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today the publication of a position statement by the European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) in the journal Maturitas. The society published a clinical guide on low-dose vaginal estrogens for postmenopausal vaginal atrophy also including a summary of recommendations.
Vaginal atrophy is common after menopause and adversely affects quality of life in one out of every two women. This guide provides the evidence for ...
Low ghrelin -- reducing appetite at the cost of increased stress?
2012-09-13
Philadelphia, PA, September 13, 2012 – Ghrelin is a hormone released by the lining of the stomach that promotes feeding behavior. Decreasing ghrelin levels could potentially help combat obesity -- in fact, a vaccine that lowers ghrelin levels in order to reduce appetite is being studied as a treatment for obesity.
However, many people eat as a way to relieve stress. If low ghrelin levels increase stress, its effectiveness as a treatment for obesity may be reduced. In the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, researchers led by Dr. Zane Andrews of Monash University in ...
Shine and rise
2012-09-13
Inhibitory neurotransmitters dampen the activity of neurons. This regulatory effect forms the basis for the action of many anesthetics. For example, propofol, a common anesthetic, interacts with receptors on neural cell membranes that normally bind the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA). Binding of GABA opens protein channels through which negatively charged chloride ions stream into the cell. By raising the resting electrical potential across the membrane, this makes the cell less likely to fire in response to an incoming stimulus. Propofol magnifies ...
People who read food labels stay thinner
2012-09-13
An international team of scientists headed from the University of Santiago de Compostela ensures that reading the labels on food products is linked to obesity prevention, especially in women. According to the study which used data from the USA, female consumers who consult food labels weigh nearly 4 kilograms less.
Along with the Universities of Tennessee, Arkansas (USA) and the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural Finance Research, the University of Santiago de Compostela has participated in a study on the relationship between reading the food label and obesity.
The ...
NIH-funded analysis estimates effective PrEP dosing
2012-09-13
WHAT:
Several large clinical trials have demonstrated that a daily oral dose of one or two antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV infection can prevent infection in an approach known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. The level of protection, however, depends on taking the drugs regularly. For instance, the landmark iPrEx study (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/Pages/iPrEx.aspx) found that overall, men who have sex with men who received a daily dose of tenofovir plus emtricitabine (Truvada) had a 44 percent lower risk of HIV infection compared with ...
Cell death mystery yields new suspect for cancer drug development
2012-09-13
A mysterious form of cell death, coded in proteins and enzymes, led to a discovery by UNC researchers uncovering a prime suspect for new cancer drug development.
CIB1 is a protein discovered in the lab of Leslie Parise, PhD , professor and chair of the department of biochemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The small calcium binding protein is found in all kinds of cells.
Cassandra Moran, DO, was a pediatric oncology fellow at UNC prior to accepting a faculty position at Duke University. She is interested in neuroblastoma, a deadly form of ...
Computer program can identify rough sketches
2012-09-13
VIDEO:
To develop a program that allows computers to recognize rough sketches, we need to understand how humans actually sketch objects. Researchers from Brown University and the Technical University of Berlin...
Click here for more information.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — First they took over chess. Then Jeopardy. Soon, computers could make the ideal partner in a game of Draw Something (or its forebear, Pictionary).
Researchers from Brown University and the ...
Effects of stopping alcohol consumption on subsequent risk of esophageal cancer
2012-09-13
Cancer of the oesophagus is becoming more common in Europe and North America. Around 7,800 people in the UK are diagnosed each year. The exact causes of this cancer aren't fully understood. It appears to be more common in people who have long-term acid reflux (backflow of stomach acid into the oesophagus). Other factors that can affect the risk of developing cancer of the oesophagus include:
Gender – It is more common in men than in women.
Age – The risk of developing oesophageal cancer increases as we get older. It occurs most commonly in people over 45.
Smoking ...
U-M guidelines help family physicians evaluate, manage urinary incontinence for women
2012-09-13
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Millions of women experience a loss of bladder control, or urinary incontinence, in their lifetime.
It's a common and often embarrassing problem that many patients don't bring up with their doctors – and when they do, it may be mentioned as a casual side note during a visit for more pressing medical issues.
Now, new guidelines from doctors at the University of Michigan Health System offer family physicians a step-by-step guide for the evaluation of urinary leakage, to prevent this quality-of-life issue from being ignored.
"I think a lot of physicians ...