Coping Mediates the Association Between Type D Personality and Perceived Health in Chinese Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

✍ Scribed by Xiao-nan Yu; Zhansheng Chen; Jianxin Zhang; Xiaohui Liu

• Book ID: 107661696
• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 162 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1070-5503
• DOI: 10.1007/s12529-010-9120-y

✦ Synopsis

Background

Increasing evidence show that Type D personality is a risk factor for morbidity, mortality, and quality of life of patients with coronary vascular disease. Few studies examined coping as a potential behavioral mechanism to explain the harmful effect of Type D personality.

Purpose

This study examined the association between Type D personality, coping, and perceived health among Chinese patients with coronary heart disease (CHD).

Methods

One hundred seventeen CHD patients completed the assessments on Type D personality, coping, perceived severity of CHD, and morale.

Results

There was no difference on severity of coronary artery stenosis between Type D and non-Type D patients. Compared to the non-Type D patients, the Type D patients perceived higher severity of CHD (5.31 ± 2.41 versus 4.45 ± 2.17, p < 0.05) and lower morale (12.67 ± 4.71 versus 15.00 ± 4.43, p < 0.05), and used less confrontation (16.90 ± 5.39 versus 20.88 ± 4.95, p < 0.001) and more acceptance–resignation coping (10.16 ± 3.50 versus 8.35 ± 3.48, p < 0.05). Mediation analyses showed that confrontation coping mediated the association between Type D personality and perceived severity of disease, and acceptance–resignation coping mediated the association between Type D personality and morale after controlling for age, gender, and clinical variables.

Conclusion

The Type D patients used maladaptive coping in response to disease. These coping strategies fully mediated the association between Type D personality and perceived health. Implications for integrating coping training into the intervention for patients with a Type D personality are discussed.