Disease Coping Styles in Young and Middle-aged Patients with First Acute Myocardial Infarction: a Qualitative Study

Background Active and effective coping is contributive to the prevention of disease recurrence and delay the development of complications. It has been reported that more than 50% of young and middle-aged patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) adopt a negative response to the disease, which negatively influences their prognosis and quality of life. But the underlying personal and sociocultural factors associated with the choice of disease coping styles in this population are still unclear. Self-regulation theory has been extensively used in studies of behaviors, comprehensive intervention, and health promotion in patients with stroke, chronic heart failure, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Currently, there is a lack of research on disease coping style and its influencing factors in young and middle-aged patients with first AMI using the framework of this theory. Objective To explore disease coping styles in young and middle-aged patients with first AMI using the four-component framework of self-regulation theory. Methods Purposive sampling was used to recruit young and middle-aged patients with first AMI from the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University from January to June 2021. They were invited to attend an individual, semi-structured interview guided using an outline determined based on our research team members and experts' consensuses on the analysis results of a relevant pre-interview. The interview was conducted till data saturation, and the interview results were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological methodology. Results Altogether, the study included 15 cases. Two themes arose from the results of interview with them: (1) the coexistence of positive coping (adjustment of mentality, emotional control, positive attitude towards AMI, self-motivation, lifestyle change, exploring a new way to achieve psychological balance) and negative coping (tolerance, avoidance, reluctant acceptance, submission, concealment) ; (2) influencing factors of coping styles (social support, prognosis estimation, behavioral benefit acquisition, and the powder of role models) . Conclusion Both positive and negative methods for coping with first AMI were found in the young and middle-aged patient population, and the negative coping cannot be overlooked. To improve the physical and mental recovery of these patients via reducing patients' negative coping styles and increasing their positive coping styles, medical workers should guide the patients and their families to make full use of the social support system, provide them with individualized health education and education on benefits of healthy behaviors through multiple ways, and set a good example of leadership, motivation and supervision.