Spousal perceptions and/or attitudes to their patient partners' capabilities have been shown to affect the effectiveness of the cardiac rehabilitation (CR) process. The purpose of this study was (a) to assess differences between patient and proxy responses to the Medical Outcomes Survey-Short Form 36 (SF36) and (b) suggest how such information may contribute to enhancing rehabilitation outcomes. Fifty-eight patients completed the SF36 prior to entering Phase II CR. Patient spouses completed a proxy version of the same questionnaire. The authors found that spouses' perceptions of their patient partners physical functioning (PF) was approximately 10% lower than patients' perceptions of their own PF(p<.04). Implications for the appropriate application of such data are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. (1999). Guidelines for CR and secondary prevention programs. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics .
2.
Andresen, E. M., Vahle, V. J., & Lollar, D. (2001). Proxy reliability: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures for people with disability . Quality of Life Research, 10, 609-619 .
3.
Daltroy, L. H., & Godin, G. (1989). The influence of spousal approval and patient perception of spousal approval on cardiac patients' participation in exercise programs . Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, 9, 363-367 .
4.
Epstein, A. M., Hall, J. A., Tognetti, J., Son, L. H., & Conant, L. (1989). Using proxies to evaluate quality of life: Can they provide valid information about patient's health status and satisfaction with medical care? Medical Care, 27, S91-S98 .
5.
Fiske, V., Coyne, J. C., & Smith, D. A. (1991). Couples coping with myocardial infarction: An empirical reconsideration of the role of overprotectiveness . Journal of Family Psychology, 5, 209-215 .
6.
Guyatt, G. H., Feeny, D. H., & Patrick, D. L. (1993). Measuring health related quality of life . Annals of Internal Medicine, 118, 622-629 .
7.
Keller, S. D., Bayliss, M. S., Ware, J. E., Hsu, M. A., Damiano, A. M., & Goss, T. F. (1997). Comparison of responses to SF-36 health survey questions with one-week and 4-week recall periods . Health Services Research, 32, 367-384 .
8.
Magaziner, J., Simonsick, E. M., Kashner, T. M., & Hebel, J. R. (1988). Patient-proxy response comparability on measures of patient health status and functional status . Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 41, 1065-1074 .
9.
Mayou, R., Foster, A., & Williamson, B. (1978). Psychological adjustment in patients one year after myocardial infarction . Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 22, 447-453 .
10.
McHorney, C. A., Ware, J. E., Lu, J. F., & Sherbourne, C. D. (1994). The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36): III. Test of data quality, scaling assumptions and reliability across diverse patient groups . Medical Care, 32, 40-66 .
11.
Oldridge, N. B. (1997). Outcome assessment in cardiac rehabilitation . Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, 17, 179-194 .
12.
Pearlman, R. A., & Uhlmann, R. G. (1988). Quality of life in chronic diseases: Perceptions of elderly patients . Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, 43, M25-M30 .
13.
Pierre, U., Wood, S., Korner, N., Gayton, D., & Hanley, J. (1998). Proxy use of the Canadian SF 36 in rating health status of the disabled elderly . Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 51, 983-990 .
14.
Rogers, J., Ridley, S., Chrispin, P., Scotton, H., & Lloyd, D. (1997). Reliability of the next of kins' estimates of critically ill patients' quality of life . Anasthesia, 52, 1137-1143 .
15.
Skelton, E., & Dominian, J. (1973). Psychological stress in wives of patients with myocardial infarction . British Medical Journal, 2, 1690-1685 .
16.
Slevin, M. L., Plant, H., Drinkwater, J., & Gregory, W. M. (1988). Who should measure quality of life, the doctor or the patient? British Journal of Cancer, 57, 109-112 .
17.
Sneeuw, K. C., Aaronson, N. K., Osoba, D., Muller, M. J., Hsu, M. A., Yung, W. K., et al. (1997). The use of significant others as proxy raters of the quality of life of patients with brain cancer . Medical Care, 35, 490-506 .
18.
Sneeuw, K. C., Aaronson, N. K., Sprangers, M. A., Detmar, S. B., Wever, L. D., & Schornagel, J. H. (1998). Comparison of patient and proxy EORTC QLQC30 ratings in assessing the quality of life of cancer patients . Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 51, 617-631 .
19.
Sprangers, M. A. G., & Aaronson, N. K. (1992). The role of health care providers and others in evaluating the quality of life of patients with chronic disease . Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 7, 743-760 .
20.
Stancliffe, R. J. (1999). Proxy respondents and the reliability of the Quality of Life Questionnaire empowerment factor . Journal of Intellectual and Disability Research, 3, 85-93 .
21.
Tamim, H., McCusker, J., & Dendukuri, N. (2002). Proxy reporting of quality of life using the EQ-5D . Medical Care, 40, 1186-1195 .
22.
Taylor, C. B., Bandura, A., Ewart, C. K., Miller, N. H., & Debusk, R. F. (1985). Exercise testing to enhance wives confidence in their husband's cardiac capability soon after clinically uncomplicated myocardial infarction . American Journal of Cardiology, 55, 635-638 .
23.
Ware, J. E., Snow, K. K., Kosinski, M., & Gandek, B. (1993). SF-36 health survey manual and interpretation guide. Boston: Health Institute, New England Medical Center .
24.
Wiklund, J. (1990). Measuring quality of life in medicine . Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care Supplement, 1, 11-14 .
25.
Yip, J. Y., Wilber, K. H., Myrtle, R. C., & Grazman, D. N. (2001). Comparison of older adult subject and proxy responses on the SF-36 health-related quality of life instrument . Aging and Mental Health, 5, 136-142 .
