Relationship between acceptance of illness and functional outcomes following cardiac rehabilitation

Acceptance, a cognitive-behavioral concept successfully applied to chronic pain and chronic illness in an HIV/AIDS population, was examined for applicability in patients in a cardiac rehabilitation program. The study examined the internal reliability of the Activities Engagement (AE) and Illness Willingness (IW) scales of the Chronic Illness Acceptance Questionnaire (CIAQ), their relationships with functional outcomes, and their ability to predict functional outcomes after controlling for demographic and medical variables.

Subjects were 36 patients recruited from a cardiac rehabilitation program at an urban Midwestern Medical Center. Subjects completed the CIAQ and physical and emotional functional outcome measures including the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire, 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), and Beck Depression Inventory.

Internal reliability scores of the AE and IW scales of the CIAQ were modest. The AE scale was significantly related to measures of emotional functioning, but not physical functioning. The IW scale was not related to any of the emotional or physical outcomes. In multiple regression analyses, AE was a significant predictor of the 2 emotional outcome measures beyond demographic and medical variables, but not the physical measures. Illness Willingness was not predictive of any of the functional outcome variables.

The AE aspect of acceptance was related to emotional outcomes and predicted these outcomes beyond demographic and medical variables. Lack of a relationship between IW and any outcomes may have been due to a small sample size or that acceptance is a one-dimensional construct.