Sf. Sears et al., PREDICTING QUALITY-OF-LIFE WITH A PRETRANSPLANTATION ASSESSMENT BATTERY - A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OF CARDIAC RECIPIENTS, Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings, 2(4), 1995, pp. 335-355
This study provides descriptive data on the prevalence of symptoms and
quality of life of cardiac transplantation recipients and tests the p
redictive validity of a pre-cardiac transplantation psychological asse
ssment battery on posttransplantation quality of life. Following the f
ormation of four cluster groups of pretransplantation MMPI profiles ba
sed on previous research, frequency analysis found that the cluster gr
oups were not equally represented among cardiac recipients, such that
the ''Distressed/Confused'' cluster had only one recipient member. Tes
ts of significance among the three remaining cluster groups on the pos
ttransplantation quality of life variables found no significant differ
ences. Regression analyses to test the predictive validity of other pr
etransplantation medical and psychological variables indicated that tr
ait anxiety was a significant predictor of increased symptom frequency
and symptom problems and decreased mental health among recipients. Co
llectively, modest support was found for the use of pretransplantation
psychological variables as predictors of posttransplantation quality
of life. Interpretation of psychological test data in the context of o
ther psychosocial variables is discussed.