[Influence of gender on protective and vulnerability factors, adherence and quality of life in patients with cardiovascular disease].

OBJECTIVES

To examine gender differences on specific protective factors (PF: acceptance and resilience), vulnerability factors (VF: anger, depression, and anxiety; adherence to treatment and quality of life (QoL) in cardiovascular patients, as well as to study separately the relationships of these factors with adherence and QoL in females and males.

DESIGN

Observational and cross-sectional.

SETTING

Two Primary Care Centres in Gran Canaria.

PARTICIPANTS

One hundred and ninety-eight cardiovascular patients (91 males and 107 females) participated.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS

Acceptance was assessed by the ICQ scale; resilience by the CD-RISC; depression by the PHQ-9; anxiety by the HADS; Anger-In and Anger-Out by the STAXI-2; QoL by the SF-36; and adherence by a self-reported scale.

RESULTS

Females exhibited higher anxiety (95% CI: 6.3-7.9) and adherence to reducing smoking (95% CI: 9.4-10.0) and drinking (95% CI: 9.6-10.1), and lower Anger-Out (95% CI: 8.9-10.0), mental QoL (95% CI: 47.0-51.3) and adherence to medication (95% CI: 22.2-23.3) compared to males. Acceptance was associated with better adherence only in women. There were more VF related to worse adherence in males. Anxiety had a negative impact on adherence, and QoL was positively associated with PF, and negatively with VF in both groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Gender differences in QoL, some VF, and adherence are observed, in addition to the beneficial role of Acceptance in women.