Acute coronary syndrome: social support and coping ability on admittance

To compare social support and coping ability in acute coronary syndrome patients at the time of the cardiac event with a healthy community-based sample, with regard to age, sex, education and marital status.

The study comprised 241 patients and 316 healthy controls. The participants answered a self-administered questionnaire that included three well-established scales. Multiple logistic regression was used in the analysis to compare the health situation between the patients and controls.

Persons suffering from acute coronary syndrome rated emotional support significantly lower than the healthy controls. However, there were no differences between the two groups in terms of socio-demographic variables.

This study indicates that social support may be a predictor of acute coronary syndrome.