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Comparison of adjustment, activity, and tangible social support in men and women patients and their spouses during the six months post-myocardial infarction

  • Empirical Research
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate gender differences in adaptation and activity among survivors of acute mycardial infarction (MI) and their spouses during the six months post-hospital discharge. Male and female married survivors of MI, matched on age, disease severity, and socioeconomic status, and their spouses responded to measures about functional impairment, psychological distress, and level of involvement in household and other activities prior to and 4, 10, 16, and 22 weeks after the MI. Both patients and spouses were distressed by the MI, but the distress lasted longer for spouses. Male spouses increased traditional domestic activities (e.g. cooking, laundry) in the weeks shortly after their wives' heart attack, and patient wives decreased domestic activities compared to prior to the MI. However, wives still did as much as their husbands. Women recovering from MI may carry a heavier burden of household responsibilities and activities than their male counterparts. This burden, if premature, may pose a threat for reinfarction during the early stages of rehabilitation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, 52242, Iowa City, IA

    Gail L. Rose, Jerry Suls & Peter J. Green

  2. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa, USA

    Patricia Lounsbury & Ellen Gordon

Authors
  1. Gail L. Rose
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  2. Jerry Suls
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  3. Peter J. Green
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  4. Patricia Lounsbury
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  5. Ellen Gordon
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Additional information

Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by NIH Grant 46448 to J. Suls.

This work represents a masters thesis conducted under the supervision of the second author.

Portions of this work were reported at the 1994 Society of Behavioral Medicine meetings and the 1994 APA conference on Women and Health.

The comments of René Martin and two anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of the manuscript are appreciated. The authors thank James Coyne for providing advice and some of the questionnaire measures used in this study.

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Rose, G.L., Suls, J., Green, P.J. et al. Comparison of adjustment, activity, and tangible social support in men and women patients and their spouses during the six months post-myocardial infarction. Ann Behav Med 18, 264–272 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02895288

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