Psychological and Work Stress Assessment of Patients following Angioplasty or Heart Surgery: Results of 1‐year Follow‐up Study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore changes in subjective psychological health and perceived work stress among patients who returned to work (RTW) after a multidisciplinary cardiac rehabilitation (CR) following cardiac interventions. A total of 108 patients were evaluated at the beginning of their CR, at 6 and 12 months after discharge. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess depression, anxiety, illness perception and work stress at each time stage. Results showed reports of depressive symptoms significantly decreased (p < 0.05) and subjective mental (p = 0.001) and physical health (p < 0.001) improved over time. Patients revealed a decrease in Type A behaviour pattern (p < 0.001) and in job satisfaction levels (p = 0.01), greater internal locus of control (p < 0.01) and increased use of the coping strategy 'Involvement' (p < 0.01). Major findings are that cardiac patients had an improvement in subjective psychological health and did not perceive increased work stress after their RTW. Patients' psychological health and work stress need to be assessed during the CR and should be also carefully monitored after the RTW in order to identify patients' psychological and work-related barriers and facilitate a safe and successful work reintegration.

Return to work after coronary revascularization procedures and a patient’s job satisfaction: A prospective study

“…Specifically, the results showed that the best predictors of a satisfying RTW after cardiac invasive procedures were: job satisfaction for the pre-illness work environment, depression and ambition, independently of sociodemographic factors, medical factors and a type of RTW (full or partial). The key role in the RTW process after an acute cardiac event played by non-medical factors has been also explored by earlier research [3][4][5]9,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Recent studies have shown that the perception of work environment, which can be reflected in work stress and job satisfaction, has a strong effect on both people's decision to RTW [16,21,22] and duration of sickness absence [15,16].…”

“…Most of these studies have found that predictors of HRQL after a heart surgery or coronary angioplasty were primarily psychological and not related to the illness severity [13][14][15][16]. Instead, research on professional life and work reintegration after cardiac interventions have focused mainly on the identification of factors predicting RTW (i.e., working/not working) or time for RTW [3,4,[17][18][19], while very few studies have investigated the quality of work resumption, in terms of a patient's job satisfaction and re-adaptation to work [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Recent studies suggested an important role of psychosocial work environment in the RTW process, with particular emphasis on work stress and job satisfaction [15,16,18,19,21,22].…”

“…Instead, research on professional life and work reintegration after cardiac interventions have focused mainly on the identification of factors predicting RTW (i.e., working/not working) or time for RTW [3,4,[17][18][19], while very few studies have investigated the quality of work resumption, in terms of a patient's job satisfaction and re-adaptation to work [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Recent studies suggested an important role of psychosocial work environment in the RTW process, with particular emphasis on work stress and job satisfaction [15,16,18,19,21,22]. Dekkers-Sànchez et al [23] have recently explored factors promoting sustained RTW of employees on long-term sick leaves and underlined the key role played by the work environment and subjective attitude towards work (e.g., work motivation, positive meaning of work, cognitions and RTW expectations).…”

“…In view of the influence of job satisfaction on the RTW process, it is important to understand which factors produce job satisfaction among employees who return to work after a long-term period of sick leave due to cardiac health problems. However, few studies have investigated the work adjustment process in terms of workers' perception of their psychosocial work environment after a longterm sick leave [12,[15][16][17][18][19]. For example, a recent study by Waszkowska et al has found that patients maladapted to work have higher levels of depression, anxiety and lowered work ability compared to the well-adapted group after myocardial infarction [12].…”

Return to work after an acute cardiac event: the role of psychosocial factors

“…RTW after a cardiac event is a multidimensional process which seems to be strongly influenced by psychosocial factors (2,9,(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). These psychosocial variables can both impede or facilitate RTW, and their identification is necessary in promoting and improving RTW among sick-listed cardiac patients (5,12,23,24). The goal of this article is to review the role of psychosocial factors in the RTW process after long-term sick leave due to a cardiac event.…”