Key result
Qualitative interviews of patients after open-heart surgery identified four themes regarding fear of disease progression: sources, effects, attitudes, and supportive service needs.
Patients after open-heart surgery experience significant fear of disease progression, highlighting the need for personalized interventions and supportive services during recovery.
May inform supportive care planning post-surgery; hypothesis-generating and requires quantitative validation before practice change.
OBJECTIVE: Open-heart surgery (OHS) is a stressful event for patients, all of whom experience varying levels of worry and fear, leading to fear of disease progression (FoP). An in-depth understanding of the experiences and needs of FoP in patients after OHS is beneficial for healthcare providers to make optimal decisions, but this has not been reported. We aimed to explore the experiences and needs of FoP in patients after OHS by adopting a qualitative interview method. METHODS: A qualitative study was performed to recruit 18 qualified patients through purposive sampling and then conduct face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. The research setting was the cardiovascular surgery ward of a tertiary hospital in Guangdong, China, in 2024. The data were analyzed and extracted using conventional content analysis. RESULTS: In the study, four themes emerged: a) sources of FoP; b) effects of FoP; c) attitudes towards FoP; d) supportive service needs. The desire to obtain meaningful assistance and the profound experiences of FoP in patients after OHS gave rise to these themes. CONCLUSIONS: FoP following OHS is a subjective feeling characterized by fear and discomfort. Care workers must completely grasp the patients' fear and provide personalized interventions to support them through the difficult recovery phase, which will also be the focus of future efforts in this area.
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Lin et al. (2024) studied Fear of disease progression after open-heart surgery (n=18). Open-heart surgery was evaluated on Experiences and needs of fear of disease progression (FoP). Qualitative interviews of patients after open-heart surgery identified four themes regarding fear of disease progression: sources, effects, attitudes, and supportive service needs.
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