Posttraumatic growth and its influencing factors among patients with myocardial infarction

Objective:To investigate the status of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and analyze its influencing factors among patients with myocardial infarction so as to provide basis for improving the PTG in myocardial infarction patients.Methods:A total of 172 patients with myocardial infarction were surveyed by filling out the social-demographic and disease-related information forms, the Life Events Scale and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory by convenience sampling.Results:Different levels of PTG occurred in 78.5% of the patients with myocardial infarction, with a total score of 69.09±13.88.The total score of PTG was 69.09±13.88.Each dimension score of PTG from high to low in order was as follows:appreciation of life(21.78±4.34), new possibilities(13.65±3.21), self-transformation(13.52±3.34), relation with others(10.56±2.44) and personal ability(9.78±2.19).Single-factor analysis showed that the career of the patients, duration of the disease, monthly family income, religious faith, knowledge about the disease and whether or not combined with other diseases affected the PTG score significantly(P<0.01).Multiple-factor analysis showed that whether or not combined with other diseases, knowledge about the disease and monthly family income finally entered into the regression equation and accounted for 34.6 percent of the PTG.Conclusions:The essential predictors include whether or not the patients are combined with other diseases, the patients' knowledge about the disease and their monthly family income.