Identification of coping strategies used by heart transplant recipients

Heart transplantation confronts the patient with major physical, psychological and social demands. Psychological adjustment to these stressors requires effective coping abilities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the coping mechanisms used by heart transplant recipients. A group of 42 heart transplant recipients completed the questionnaire. The instrument, F-COPES (Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales), was used to measure coping behaviours, thereby producing scores on five coping subscales: Acquiring social support; Reframing; Seeking spiritual support; Mobilizing family to accept help; and Passive appraisal. The results indicated that subjects in the present study (Scottish patients) scored slightly higher than normative subjects (American patients) on the Reframing subscale, slightly lower on the two subscales Acquiring social support and Mobilizing family to accept help, and much lower on Spiritual support. These results also indicated that the coping strategies used by this sample appeared to be largely independent of the time elapsed since transplantation, and the age of the subject. The major finding was that subjects scored much higher on the Passive appraisal coping subscale (almost double the score of the normative subjects).