The Effect of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Cardiac Chest Pain Management Training on Perceived Control, Depression, Stress and Anxiety in the Spouses of the Patients with Myocardial Infarction: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Sudden cardiac death is the most common cause of mortality worldwide. Most cases occurat home and the individuals most likely witnessed are family members. Spouses play a significant role inthe recovery of such patients. We aimed to investigate the effect of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)and cardiac chest pain management trainings on the perceived control, depression, stress and anxiety in thespouses of the patients with Myocardial Infarction (MI). The present randomized controlled trial study was performed on 78 spouses of the patientsadmitted to Cardiac Care Unit of the hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences fromAugust 2013 to April 2014. The subjects were randomly assigned into intervention (n=40) and controlgroups (n=38). The intervention group took part in educational workshop on CPR and cardiac chest painmanagement and followed-up for six weeks. Data were collected using Depression Anxiety Stress (DASS)Scale and Rotter’s internal-external locus of Control Scale. Statistical methods of data analysis includeddescriptive statistics, Chi-squared test, paired sample t-test, independent sample t-test, one way analysis ofcovariance, and multivariate analysis of covariance. There were significant differences between intervention and control groups in perceived controland DASS subscales. After the intervention, perceived control scores reduced from 9.42±3.33 to 8.15±3.65(P=0.001); depression from 28.85±11.99 to 21.65±8.64 (P=0.001); anxiety from 26.6±9.46 to 20.70±6.29(P=0.02); and stress from 30.20±10.91 to 24.32±10.23 (P=0.01) in the intervention group. CPR and cardiac chest pain management trainings could effectively improve the perceivedcontrol, depression, anxiety, and stress in the spouses of the patients with MI.