Hope, mood states and quality of life in female heart transplant recipients.
BACKGROUND
The role of hope on mood states and quality of life (QOL) in heart transplant recipients has not been examined previously. This exploratory study was done to describe levels of hope, mood states and QOL; examine relationships between these variables and demographic characteristics; and identify predictors of QOL in female heart transplant recipients.


METHODS
Fifty women from a single heart transplant clinic were asked to complete the Herth Hope Index (HHI), Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist (MAACL) and SF-12 (which produces a physical component summary [PCS] and a mental component summary [MCS]). Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and stepwise multiple regression were used to analyze the data. The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05.


RESULTS
Patients on average were 54.7 +/- 13.0 years of age and had undergone heart transplantation 5.2 +/- 4.4 years prior to study participation. Patients reported experiencing moderately low hope, and moderately high anxiety, depression and hostility. They also exhibited low levels of QOL as reflected in their low PCS and MCS scores. There was a strong positive association between hope, mood states and MCS (p = 0.001). In a multiple regression model, age, hope and depression accounted for 69% of the variance in the MCS.


CONCLUSIONS
The study supports the strong association between hope, mood states and the MCS of QOL in female heart transplant recipients. Hope was an independent predictor of mood states and QOL. This finding suggests that interventions directed at fostering hope among heart transplant recipients may be the key to improving their QOL.
Evangelista
Lorraine S
LS
School of Nursing, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA. levangel@ucla.edu
Doering
Lynn V
LV
Dracup
Kathleen
K
Vassilakis
Maria Espejo
ME
Kobashigawa
Jon
J
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000502:physiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016387:Women's Health