Gender Differences in Psychosocial Variables and Health-related Quality of Life of Patients with Myocardial Infarction

The purpose of this study was to examine differences and changes in fatigue, level of depression, anxiety, and stress, insomnia, social support, and HRQoL (health-related quality of life) in patients with MI (myocardial infarction) between genders over three months. One hundred and fifty patients with MI completed questionnaires at baseline. The follow-up questionnaires were answered via telephone or face-to-face at three months by 136 patients. The ANCOVA tests were used to examine differences and paired-samples t-tests for exploring changes. Differences in level of depression, anxiety, and stress (F=2.336, p=.036) and insomnia (F=3.932, p=.049) were significant between genders at the follow-up. Significant changes in all variables over three months were observed. Despite lower scores at baseline, female patients showed significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress than males at the follow-up. Findings of this study suggest that intensive interventions for these psychological factors of female patients might be required up to three months.