Abstract
Introduction: Lifestyle change and medicines management form thecornerstone of secondary prevention for people with established coronaryheart disease. For optimum benefit, people with established heart diseaseare advised to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours, cease harmful ones andtake medicines as prescribed. Success with such activities is suboptimaldespite the acknowledged potential for a significant reduction in death &disability. Little is known about the role that patients’ partners/spouses playin the self management of lifestyle change and medicines management.Aim: To explore the way in which partners/spouses influence the selfmanagementof their partner’s lifestyle and medicines after coronaryangioplasty. Emphasis was given to understanding the complexity of factorsthat influence the degree of partner/spouse involvement.Methods: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 partners/spouses10−12 months after their partner was discharged from a large specialistUK cardiac centre following coronary angioplasty. Each participant wasinterviewed in a home setting. Interviews were audio- taped and transcribedverbatim. NVivo software was used to systematically order and synthesizefindings.Results: Partners/spouses were understandably concerned by their spousesheart condition. The role that they played in supporting their partner’sefforts at making lifestyle changes varied and reflected the nature of theirrelationship. Unlike lifestyle change, medicines management was usuallyperceived as something that patient’s managed without the assistance oftheir partner/spouse. Some aspects of lifestyle change such as cigarettecessation were a significant source of tension between couples.Conclusion: Partners/spouses played a key role in influencing lifestylechange. This was less apparent in medicines management. The involvementof partners/spouses in secondary prevention is an important andunderutilised resource to encourage the self management of lifestyle andmedicines.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 148 |
| Pages (from-to) | S31-S31 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | Suppl 1 |
| Early online date | 1 Mar 2010 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2010 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 10th Annual Spring Meeting on Cardiovascular Nursing - Geneva, Switzerland Duration: 12 Mar 2010 → 13 Mar 2010 Conference number: 10 |
