KU Leuven Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 35, Box 7001, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Brussels, Belgium.
Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs. 2022 Jun 30;21(5):491-498. doi: 10.1093/eurjcn/zvab117.
Absence from work or school in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) is an understudied domain. Illness identity, which is the degree to which a chronic illness is integrated into one's identity, could be hypothesized to be a predictor for absenteeism. This study determined the proportion of young adults with CHD absent from work or school and examined if illness identity dimensions were related to absenteeism.
In a cross-sectional study, we included 255 patients with CHD. Data on absence from work or school over the past 12 months were obtained using self-report. The Illness Identity Questionnaire was used, which comprises four illness identity dimensions: rejection, engulfment, acceptance, and enrichment. Linear models with doubly robust estimations were computed after groups were balanced using propensity weighting. Absence from work/school occurred in 69% of young adults with CHD. Absence because of CHD specifically was present in 15% of the patients. Engulfment was significantly related to both all-cause absence and absence for CHD reasons.
Patients who strongly define themselves in terms of their heart disease were more likely to be absent from work or school than those who did not. If this finding can be confirmed in future research, it has the potential to be a target for intervention to influence work/school absence.
患有先天性心脏病 (CHD) 的患者缺勤是一个研究不足的领域。疾病认同度，即慢性病融入个人身份的程度，可被假设为缺勤的预测因素。本研究旨在确定患有 CHD 的年轻人缺勤的比例，并探讨疾病认同度维度是否与缺勤有关。
在一项横断面研究中，我们纳入了 255 名 CHD 患者。使用自我报告的方式获取过去 12 个月内工作或学业缺勤的数据。使用疾病认同度问卷进行评估，该问卷包含四个疾病认同度维度：排斥、吞没、接受和丰富。使用倾向评分匹配进行分组平衡后，进行了线性模型的双重稳健估计。69%的 CHD 年轻患者存在工作/学业缺勤。其中 15%的患者因 CHD 缺勤。吞没与所有原因的缺勤以及因 CHD 缺勤显著相关。
与那些不强烈将自己定义为心脏病患者的人相比，将自己强烈定义为心脏病患者的人更有可能缺勤。如果这一发现能够在未来的研究中得到证实，那么它有可能成为干预缺勤的目标。
