Do marital and family factors influence psychosocial adjustment in patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation?
Marital and family factors are theoretically and clinically important for psychosocial adjustment during cardiac rehabilitation, highlighting a need for more rigorous, well-controlled studies.
This literature review has attempted to determine whether marital and family factors are important within each of the following psychosocial aspects of a cardiac rehabilitation program mainly for men, but also for some women groups: social support, well‐being, stress management, depression and anxiety control, return to work, modification of alcohol or substance abuse, and sexual adjustment. A summary of convincing research in the general population is presented that suggests marital and family factors play a crucial role in coping within each of these psychosocial areas. The specific cardiac literature was found to contain convincing theoretical, clinical, and nonexperimental reports to justify emphasizing family factors in promoting psychosocial adjustment in heart patients. However, with only a few noteworthy exceptions, the cardiac literature was found, generally, to lack well‐controlled comparison studies that employed objective measures for evaluation of family‐system variables contributing to effective cardiac rehabilitation. Some recommendations for future researchers interested in examining family‐system aspects of cardiac rehabilitation are offered.
Sotile et al. (Fri,) studied this question.