Supporting and inhibiting factors in recovery experienced by the patients after myocardial infarction during an 18-month follow-up

Abstract

Objective: There is a need for studies on recovery as experienced by the patient after myocardial infarction. This study is a report on supporting and inhibiting factors in recovery of Finnish patients after myocardial infarction in an Interpersonal Counselling intervention group and in a control group given standard care at 6 months and 18 months after myocardial infarction.

Methods: Firstly, during the 6 months following patients receiving IPC (n=21) and standard care (n=19) kept diaries related to supporting and inhibiting factors in recovery. The data were analyzed by inductive content analysis. Secondly, the patients (44 in the intervention group and 42 in the control group) were interviewed with the same open-ended questions 18 months after myocardial infarction. This data were analyzed using deductive content analysis. An attribution analysis was performed on both data.

Results: Five main categories, including supporting and inhibiting factors and subcategories, were identified: (1) clinical and physical, (2) psychological, (3) social, (4) functional and (5) professional. There were no differences between the groups.

Conclusions: Recovery experienced by the patient after myocardial infarction seems to consist of many supporting and inhibiting factors. This is important to take into account in developing nursing practice. The topic calls for more specific studies. These results could be useful material in developing and testing a quantitative instrument for more precise measuring of recovery after MI in a randomized setting. To develop theory, the results indicate numerous possibilities to test relationships between supporting and inhibiting factors in recovery after myocardial infarction.