Fear of graft rejection 1–5 years after lung transplantation—A nationwide cohort study

Aim To explore the perceived threat of the risk of graft rejection and its relationship to psychological general well‐being and self‐efficacy 1–5 years after lung transplantation. Design A nationwide, cross‐sectional cohort study as a part of the Self‐management after thoracic transplantation study. Methods A total of 117 lung transplant recipients due for their yearly follow‐up one ( N = 35), two ( N = 28), three ( N = 23), four ( N = 20) and 5 years ( N = 11) after lung transplantation were included. We used three instruments; the Perceived Threat of the Risk of Graft Rejection, the Psychological General Well‐being and Self‐efficacy in chronic illness. Results The lung recipients reported an overall low perceived threat of the risk of graft rejection with no gender differences. Intrusive anxiety explained 24.7% of the variance in the PGWB‐sum ( p ≤ 0.001) and makes a statistically significant ( β = −497; p ≤ 0.001) unique contribution to the overall psychological general well‐being (95%CI 3.004—1.515).