• Background Despite significant progress in the treatment of coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction is still the leading cause of death in the United States. As suggested by Leventhal’s Self-Regulation Model of Illness, the continued high morbidity and mortality may be due to a failure to address the role of psychosocial factors such as illness representation, depression, and anxiety in recovery.• Objective To determine the relationship between illness representation of myocardial infarction and the occurrence of in-hospital complications and if anxiety and depression mediate this relationship.• Method A prospective correlational design was used to measure illness representation, depression, and anxiety 24 to 48 hours after admission for myocardial infarction in 49 patients and the frequency of complications during the acute event. Logistic regression was used to determine the likelihood of experiencing a complication.• Results When demographic and clinical variables were controlled for, the more negative the representation of illness, the greater were the odds of experiencing a complication (χ2 = 16.9, df = 6, P=.01). The odds of experiencing a complication increased 5.1% for each 1 unit increase in the score on the Illness Preparation Questionnaire (B = 0.05, Wald = 4.442, Exp(B) = 1.051, 95% CI = 1.003–1.1010). Neither anxiety (χ2 = 3.0, df = 1, P = .09) nor depression (χ2 = 2.5, df = 1, P = .11) were significant predictors of the occurrence of complications.• Conclusion In these patients, illness representation was predictive of the likelihood of experiencing a complication. Thus, illness representation appears to be an important psychosocial factor in acute recovery from myocardial infarction.

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Studies have shown that individuals influence their health outcomes, both positively and negatively, through their illness representation. To date, no studies describe the illness representation of persons with systolic heart failure, a significant contributor of morbidity and mortality in older adults. The purpose of this study was to describe illness representation in heart failure. Twenty-two subjects with New York Heart Association class II or III systolic heart failure were recruited at a university-based heart failure clinic. Illness representation was measured using the revised Illness Perception Questionnaire. The means on each of the 9 subscales were found to be significantly different from the neutral point of 3. The results suggest that participants believed that their heart failure was a chronic, cyclic disease with serious consequences that they could control through treatment. In addition, participants believed that they understood their heart failure and did not have a negative affective response to their heart failure.