Dimensions of illness behaviour in survivors of myocardial infarction

Abstract Psychological responses to illness of 120 survivors of myocardial infarction were examined using the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ). All patients were seen in general hospital medical wards, 10–14 days after admission to hospital. Principal components analysis of the data with varimax rotation yielded 8 clinically meaningful factors accounting for 61.5% of the variance. These were interpreted as somatic concern, psychosocial precipitants, affective disruption, affective inhibition, illness recognition, subjective tension, sick role acceptance and trust in the doctor. These factors are consistent with common preconceptions of the experience of myocardial infarction and are similar, in part, to responses after myocardial infarction reported in a small number of previous studies. They are, however, only marginally similar to patterns of illness behaviour reported for other illnesses, which suggests that the nature of myocardial infarction imparts a unique quality to illness behaviour developed after it. The significance of these factors was discussed in terms of the contributions they might make to the more effective structuring of psychotherapeutic components of rehabilitation and secondary prevention following myocardial infarction.