Association between the Quality of Marital Relationship and Marital Stress in Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease

Marital relationship is a multi-dimensional relationship, which is affected by many factors, such as psychological, individual, and social parameters. Satisfaction with a sexual relationship can cause the strength of the family, as well as both physical and mental health. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between the quality of marital relationships and marital stress in patients with ischemic heart disease.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 300 patients with acute coronary syndrome two months after being admitted to the Cardiac Angiography Unit at Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Qom, Iran, during 2016. The patients were selected using a  convenience sampling method. Moreover, the
data were collected through demographic characteristics form, clinical data questionnaire, as well as marital quality, and Stockholm marital stress scales. The data were then analyzed in SPSS software (version 13) through central indices, Pearson correlation test, and multiple linear regression.

The mean age of the patients was 65.95±5.06 years. Moreover, the mean values of the quality of marital relationships and marital stress were 54.36±9.4 and 3.56±0.05  respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient showed a significant negative correlation between the quality of marital relationship scores and marital stress scores (r=-0.718). Furthermore, the results of linear regression analysis revealed that there was a significant relationship between the quality of the marital relationship and marital stress after removing the effects of intervening variables (P=0.001, R2=59%).

The results showed that patients with acute coronary syndrome had favorable marital relationships and low levels of marital stress. Moreover, a reduction in marital stress improved the quality of the marital relationship. Therefore, it is recommended that nurses pay attention to education regarding marital stress management in patients with ischemic heart disease.