Work and Marital Status in Relation to Depressive Symptoms and Social Support among Women with Coronary Artery Disease

Background: Work and marital status have been shown to be associated with health outcome in women. However, the effect of employment and marriage on psychosocial functioning has been studied predominantly in healthy subjects. We investigated whether work and marital status are associated with depressive symptoms, social support, and daily stress behavior in women with coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods: Data of 105 women with CAD and of working age were analyzed. General linear models were used to determine the association between work and marital status and depressive symptoms, social support, and daily stress behavior. Results: Women who were working at the time of measurement had lower levels of depressive symptoms (7.0 ± 1.2 vs. 12.1 ± 0.9, p < 0.01) and higher levels of social support (21.6 ± 1.0 vs. 18.9 ± 0.7, p = 0.03) than the nonworking women, whereas marital status was not related to any of the outcome variables. Results were similar after adjusting for potential confounders, that is, age, ...