Key result
Post-diagnosis heart-focused anxiety involves fear and avoidance linked to adverse outcomes and recurrent chest pain.
Why the study?
Heart-focused anxiety is a common experience among patients after myocardial infarction but is rarely addressed in nursing research.
This concept analysis provides a synthesized definition of heart-focused anxiety to guide future nursing and multidisciplinary research.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Heart-focused anxiety post-MI merits clinical recognition; leaves open validation of measures and targeted interventions.
Although heart-focused anxiety is a common experience of patients following a myocardial infarction, it is one rarely addressed in nursing research. I used Rodger's evolutionary method of concept analysis to review uses of heart-focused anxiety in literature from several disciplines including nursing and synthesized a definition to guide future research. Heart-focused anxiety is an experience of avoidance, fear, and heart-focused attention that follows from cardiac diagnoses, somatic symptoms, and familial factors and results in adverse health outcomes, reassurance seeking, disruption of life, and recurrent chest pain. Although heart-focused anxiety is an evolving concept, the updated definition should help provide a foundation for future research. A Supplemental Digital Content video abstract is available at http://links.lww.com/ANS/A32.
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Pamela Barthle (2022) conducted a review in Heart-focused anxiety following myocardial infarction. Heart-focused anxiety was evaluated on Definition and synthesis of heart-focused anxiety. Heart-focused anxiety is defined as an experience of avoidance, fear, and heart-focused attention following cardiac diagnoses, resulting in adverse health outcomes and recurrent chest pain.