Illness Perception, Treatment Adherence and Coping in Persons with Coronary Artery Disease Undergoing Angioplasty

Background and Objective: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of sudden death. In this article, we compared patients’ illness perception (IP), treatment adherence and coping mechanisms of patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). Methods: In this descriptive, prospective observational study IP, treatment adherence and coping of 140 patients were evaluated pre-PTCA, at the time of hospital discharge and 1 to 3 months post-PTCA by Illness Perception Questionnaire, Morisky Treatment Adherence and Carver’s brief COPE questionnaires. Results: 1 - 3 months post-PTCA, all dimensions of IP changed significantly except personal and treatment control. Adherence scores decreased simultaneously. With respect to coping mechanisms, all increased except behavioral disengagement, emotional support, instrumental support and religion which decreased significantly post-PTCA. Conclusions: In Overall, an improved IP and increased use of controllable causal attributions led to an increase in medication adherence and adaptive coping strategies. Post-treatment health behaviors are predictable by assessing patients’ illness-related beliefs beforehand.

Coping mechanism against high levels of daily stress by working breastfeeding mothers in Iran

Objectives:Breastfeeding mothers returning to work undertake multiple conflicting roles at home and work that can result in high levels of stress.Exploring coping skills amongst these mothers can help in planning useful programmes to promote family wellbeing.This study aims to explore the experiences of working breastfeeding mothers and their coping mechanism against high levels of daily stress.Methods:In this qualitative study,we described the experiences of 20 Iranian breastfeeding mothers through in-depth and semi-structured interviews.All interviews were recorded,transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.Results:Two main themes emerged as follows:1) self-management with subthemes of a) attitude reconstruction,b) order and planning,c) creating a boundary between work and family and d) reprioritising life affairs;and 2) seeking help with subthemes of a) family member support,b) childcare facilities and c) spirituality.Conclusions:Findings suggest that women need support from family members and family-friendly policies at the workplace.Breastfeeding mothers may benefit from educational programmes that focus on effective coping strategies.

Obstacles for Iranian rural population to participate in health education programmes:a qualitative study

Objective To explore the obstacles of community participation in rural health education programmes from the viewpoints of Iranian rural inhabitants.Design This was a qualitative study with conventional content analysis approach which was carried out March to October 2016.setting Data collected using semistructured interviews that were digitally recorded,transcribed and analysed until data saturation.MAXQDA 10 software was used to manage the textual data.Participant Participants were twenty-two seven clients from a rural community in Ardabil,Iran who were receiving health services from health centres.result The main obstacles to participate in health education programmes in rural settings were‘Lack of trust to the rural health workers’,‘Adherence to neighbourhood social networks in seeking health information’and‘Lack of understanding on the importance of health education’.Conclusion Rural health education programmes in Iran are encountered with a variety of obstacles.We need to enhancing mutual trust between the rural health workers and villagers,and developing community-based education programmes to promote health information seeking behaviours among villagers.The finding of this study will be a referential evidence for the qualitative improvement of local health education programmes for rural inhabitants.