Abstract
Background: Successful adjustment following treatment for coronary artery disease is related to both psychological disposition and risk factor status. Consideration of the interplay between these variables is required to better acknowledge their relationship with health outcome.
Aims: To determine the salience of self-efficacy and locus of control to both general self-rated health and current cardiac health, relative to risk factor status. To determine whether self-efficacy is a more salient predictor of health status than locus of control.
Methods: Men (n = 248) treated in the previous 3 years for either coronary artery disease alone or a myocardial infarction completed a questionnaire in which clinical, risk factor (knowledge of risk factors, current risk factors, change in risk factors), psychological (self-efficacy, locus of control) and health information were sought.
Results: Self-efficacy and internal locus of control had both direct and indirect influences on health in the models in which knowledge of risk factors was treated as the potential mediator. This pattern of results was not evident when either current risk factors or change in risk factors were examined as potential mediators. In the models in which self-efficacy was considered as a potential mediator of locus of control in the prediction of health status, self-efficacy was determined to be the more relevant psychological construct.
Conclusion: The consistent positive associations obtained among self-efficacy, cognitive risk factor status and health suggest that health professionals involved in cardiac rehabilitation should be encouraged to tailor interventions that allow patients to both improve their understanding of CAD and also to develop greater self-confidence in their ability to implement the acquired knowledge.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.