Gender differences in emotional disability and negative health perception in cardiac patients 6 months after stent implantation.

OBJECTIVES: In this study we evaluate gender differences in affective adaptation and health perception in patients 6 months after stent implantation.

BACKGROUND: Assessment of gender-specific behavioral strategies to cope with serious cardiac disease conditions has not been given much attention until now. Preliminary data suggest greater impairments in female patients, which might be of clinical relevance.

METHODS: Three hundred seventeen patients were eligible for the 6-month follow-up investigation, 78 (24.6%) of whom were women. The women were significantly older but did not differ from men in their cardiac risk features and treatment procedures. There were no gender differences in prevalence of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and family history. Men had a significantly higher prevalence of smoking than women, whereas women had a significantly higher prevalence of diabetes than men. A structured interview and a standardized psychodiagnostic assessment was carried out, which covered domains of affective dysfunction (depression, anxiety, intrusion, and avoidance), vegetative symptoms (sleeping disorders), and parameters of negative health perception.

RESULTS: There were no significant gender differences in the prevalence of depressive symptoms. Women exhibited higher mean values of anxiety than men, which did not reach significance. Sleeping disorders were significantly more prevalent in women. The absolute level of being distressed by intrusive thoughts and avoidance behavior related to the severe underlying disease process was low in the total group of patients examined. Measurable gender differences did not emerge. Fifty-one (16.5%) patients exhibited pessimistic anticipation of dire consequences and severe signs of negative health perception (NHP group). There was a trend, although not statistically significant, toward more women being in the NHP group. The distribution of cardiac risk factors, however, was completely balanced in the NHP(+) and NHP(-) patient groups. Objective somatic cardiac disease parameters did not account for the negative health perception. NHP was, however, associated with significantly more prestent angina pectoris (p < 0.040) and poststent angina pectoris (p < 0.0001). High levels of anxiety, depression, and of disturbed sleep also led to a sharp separation between patients with high degrees of an anticipated incapacitation due to the disease process. Univariate regression analysis suggested an effect of female gender on the occurrence of NHP (odds ratio 1. 70; 95% CI 0.88 to 3.25), which was of borderline significance. Control for confounders in a multiple regression model, however, eliminated the gender effect (odds ratio 1.04, 95% CI 0.48 to 2.23). Poststent chest pain (odds ratio 7.75, 95% CI 3.28 to 18.32) and sleeping disorders (odds ratio 1.32, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.51) were identified as the most powerful confounders of the gender-NHP association.

CONCLUSION: Contrary to expectation, women were not per se more distressed than men in all areas of adaptation of the midterm course after stent implantation, although the higher levels of anxiety and sleeping disorders in women deserve attention. A considerable proportion of patients exhibited a pessimistic disease perspective independent of their somatic status, which was associated with affective morbidity. The tendency toward more negative health perception in women may be due to their more frequent occurrence of chest pain and sleeping disorders.