Xie Yantong, Li Xinyi, Xie Min, Lin Chunxi, Yang Zhiqi, Li Mingfang, Chen Jing, Zhao Meng, Guo Zijun, Yan Jun
School of Nursing, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.
Chu Xiong Medical college, Chuxiong, Yunnan Province, China.
Heart Lung. 2025 Mar-Apr;70:183-190. doi: 10.1016/j.hrtlng.2024.12.006. Epub 2024 Dec 19.
Intention is an important factor in encouraging patients to receive cardiac rehabilitation. Illness perceptions of patients and individuals around them, such as family caregivers, may influence intention. However, no study has explored how family caregivers' illness perceptions enhance older coronary heart disease (CHD) patients' phase II cardiac rehabilitation intentions.
To describe older CHD patients' phase II cardiac rehabilitation intentions and their relationship with family caregivers' illness perceptions and to examine the mediating role of patients' illness perceptions.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 202 older CHD patient‒family caregiver dyads. The Chinese versions of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire, Willingness to Participate in Cardiac Rehabilitation Questionnaire (WPCRQ), and Cardiac Rehabilitation Inventory (CRI) were adopted. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and structural equation modeling. Reporting followed the STROBE checklist.
Patients were 69.81 years and mostly male (64.85 %); family caregivers were 52.58 years and mostly female (55.94 %). Family caregivers' personal control had a direct effect on patients' phase II cardiac rehabilitation intentions (β = -0.217, β = -0.228; P = 0.001). Family caregivers' personal control, treatment control, and timeline acute/chronic had indirect effects on patients' cardiac rehabilitation intentions through patients' corresponding dimensions of illness perceptions (|β| = 0.086∼0.098, |β| = 0.062∼0.097; P < 0.05).
Family caregivers' illness perceptions can affect patients' phase II cardiac rehabilitation intentions directly and indirectly through patients' illness perceptions. Interventions targeting illness perceptions in both older CHD patients and their family caregivers could be provided to improve patients' phase II cardiac rehabilitation intentions.
