Background: To our knowledge this was the first study aimed at examining the associations between illness perceptions and heart-focussed anxiety amongst individuals with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The secondary aim of this study was to examine the contribution of demographic, clinical and lifestyle factors to heart-focussed anxiety in this patient group.
Methods: This cross-sectional sample of 153 patients, recruited through social media platforms, completed the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), Cardiac-Focussed Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ) as well as questionnaires covering demographic, lifestyle and clinical factors.
Results: Hierarchical regression analyses found that illness perceptions significantly accounted for variability in heart-focussed anxiety beyond the effects of clinical, demographic and lifestyle factors. Illness perceptions accounted for 22% of the variability in heart-focussed anxiety, while demographic factors accounted for 12%, and lifestyle and clinical parameters accounted for 17%.
Conclusions: Whilst longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm these findings, psychological interventions grounded in the Common-Sense Model may have the potential to better support patients coping with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy related anxiety.
Keywords: Cardiac-focussed anxiety; Common sense model; Heart-focussed anxiety; Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Illness perceptions.
Copyright © 2020 Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS) and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.