Abstract
Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), a heart condition, has its associated distress. Due to the quantitative method often employed, related studies were very limited in conducting an in-depth analysis of the distress experiences of patients with LVH. Through a phenomenological research design, this study utilizes face-to-face qualitative in-depth interviews to explore the distress experiences of 51 (age range = 26 to 67 years) patients with LVH at a Nigerian health facility. The data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal that participants were very anxious about several things relating to LVH, including the term LVH because it was new to them. Participants were anxious about the symptoms they experienced. Participants experienced chest pain, which was a source of distress to them. Participants catastrophized the outcomes of their symptoms whenever they experienced them. In some cases, this occurred because they lacked knowledge of LVH. Last, participants experienced difficulties adjusting to the lifestyle modifications associated with living with LVH. Conclusively, these findings suggest that interactive patient education that enables patients to ask questions that bother them about LVH and the inclusion of pain management interventions in the treatment plan for patients with LVH are valuable for mitigating the distress experiences of patients with LVH. These findings also suggest that cognitive restructuring targeted at anxious concerns and catastrophizing, and lifestyle modification adjustment training are valuable for mitigating the distress experiences of patients with LVH. Longitudinal qualitative studies should explore if there are long-term distress experiences of this patient group that are not captured in this study. This is because the maximum reversal of LVH is a time-consuming process.
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The data associated with this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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The authors are grateful to all participants for their kind cooperation and Dr. Chiomaefuelim A. Dibie for her intellectual input.
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The first author conceived and designed the study. He invited the co-authors for a collaboration. All authors contributed substantially to the data collection, data analysis, interpretation of findings, manuscript writing, proofreading, and approval of the final version. This paper is a collaboration among committed professionals who are not sponsored by any institution or agency.
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Ogueji, I.A., Maloba, M., Ogbonna, A.N. et al. What are the distress experiences of patients with left ventricular hypertrophy? A qualitative insight. Curr Psychol 42, 25561–25568 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03601-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03601-1