title: Dynamics of support perceptions among couples coping with cardiac illness: the effect on recovery outcomes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The current prospective study explored how male cardiac patients' perceptions of received support (i.e., active engagement, protective buffering, and overprotection) moderated the associations between female partners' perceptions of provided support and patients' recovery outcomes: psychological well-being, cholesterol levels, and smoking cessation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Couples (N = 86) completed surveys at the initial hospitalization after patients' Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), and 1 and 6 months later. Partners' ways of providing support and patients' concurrent perceptions of these ways were measured using the Ways of Giving Support Questionnaire; patients' depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Patients' cholesterol levels were assessed during hospitalization and 6 months later, and smoking habits were reported by the patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Female partners' protective buffering was positively associated with male patients' depressive symptoms at follow-up only when male patients' own perceptions of partners' protective buffering were low. Female partners' active engagement was positively associated with better odds for male patients' cessation of smoking only when patients' own perceptions of partners' active engagement were high. Finally, female partners' overprotection was associated with higher levels of male patients' harmful blood lipids at follow-up, but only when patients' own perceptions of partners' overprotection were high.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As hypothesized, the effect of partners' perceptions of support provided on patients' recovery was moderated by patients' own perceptions of the support received. The effect of this interaction was determined by the specific types of support provided or received and by the specific recovery outcome that was measured. The clinical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel. noav18@inter.net.il
authors.forename: Noa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vilchinsky
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dekel
authors.forename: Morton
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leibowitz
authors.forename: Orna
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Reges
authors.forename: Abid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khaskia
authors.forename: Morris
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mosseri
mesh_terms: D054058:Acute Coronary Syndrome / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012944:Social Support; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires