The effect of the biological status of CAD patients on health related quality of life: the mediating role of illness representations

Aim and The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the biological status of patients with CAD on health related quality of life and the mediating role of illness representations based on hypothesized model.Methods and Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 270 patients with CAD (180 males and 90 females) from Heart Center Hospital were selected by available sampling method and asked to answer Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief IPQ) and Seattle angina Questionnaire (SAQ). Data for biological status of patients was obtained by echocardiography (to get LVEF) and classification of New York Heart Association (NYHA). Independent T test, χ2, Pearson correlation coefficient and SEM method are used for data analyzing. The results of T and 2χ tests showed that there is significant difference between male and female patients in some components of illness representations and HRQOL. The SEM results supported the hypothesized model about the effect of the biological status of patients with CAD on HRQOL and the mediating role of illness representations and showed that this model has appropriate fitness. These results suggest that LVEF and biological status directly and indirectly by illness representations affect on HRQOL in CAD patients. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on interventions that increase LVEF and physiological status and interventions that modify illness representations for these patients.