Functional decline after congestive heart failure and acute myocardial infarction and the impact of psychological attributes. A prospective study

This article examines the influence of three pre-morbidly assessed psychological attributes (i.e. neuroticism, mastery and self-efficacy expectancies) on functional decline after congestive heart failure (CHF; n = 134) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI; n = 79) in late middle-aged and older persons. Due to the prospective design of the study initial baseline levels of functional disability and number of chronic medical conditions could be adjusted, next to age, gender and the severity of either CHF or AMI. Functional disability was re-assessed 8 weeks after the diagnosis of either CHF or AMI. Significant unique contributions of self-efficacy expectancies were found for functional decline after CHF, while mastery significantly contributes to functional decline after AMI: those patients with higher levels of mastery or self-efficacy expectancies showed less decline. In conclusion, pre-morbidly assessed psychological attributes substantially influence functional decline after cardiac disease in late middle-aged and older persons, but the impact of specific attributes is somewhat different for CHF and AMI.