Rights The Author(s) Coping Mediates the Association Between Type D Personality and Perceived Health in Chinese Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

# The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background Increasing evidence show that Type D person-ality is a risk factor for morbidity, mortality, and quality of life of patients with coronary vascular disease. Few studies examined coping as a potential behavioral mechanism to explain the harmful effect of Type D personality. Purpose This study examined the association between Type D personality, coping, and perceived health among Chinese patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods One hundred seventeen CHD patients completed the assessments on Type D personality, coping, perceived severity of CHD, and morale. Results There was no difference on severity of coronary artery stenosis between Type D and non-Type D patients. Compared to the non-Type D patients, the Type D patients perceived higher severity of CHD (5.31±2.41 versus 4.45± 2.17, p<0.05) and lower morale (12.67±4.71 versus 15.00± 4.43, p<0.05), and used less confrontation (16.90±5.39 versus 20.88±4.95, p<0.001) and more acceptance–resigna-tion coping (10.16±3.50 versus 8.35±3.48, p<0.05). Mediation analyses showed that confrontation coping medi-ated the association between Type D personality and perceived severity of disease, and acceptance–resignation coping mediated the association between Type D personality and morale after controlling for age, gender, and clinical variables. Conclusion The Type D patients used maladaptive coping in response to disease. These coping strategies fully mediated the association between Type D personality and perceived health. Implications for integrating coping training into the intervention for patients with a Type D personality are discussed