Illness representations according to age and effects on health behaviors following coronary artery bypass graft surgery

OBJECTIVES: To determine if illness representations differ as a function of age and how these representations, in conjunction with age, predict postop erative health behaviors. DESIGN: Prospective study of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass gra ft (CABG) surgery. SETTING: A large metropolitan hospital providing regional cardiac care for patients in a tri-state area, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. PARTICIPANTS: All consenting patients (N = 309) from a consecutive series o f patients scheduled for CABG surgery between January 1992 and January 1994 . To be eligible for participation, patients could not be scheduled for any other coincidental surgery (e.g., valve replacement), and could not be in cardiac intensive care or experiencing angina at the time of the referral. Participants were predominantly male (70%) and married (80%), and averaged 62.8 years of age. MEASUREMENTS: Postoperative self-reported health behaviors. RESULTS: Older participants awaiting CABG surgery were significantly more l ikely to believe old age to be the cause of their coronary heart disease (C HD) and significantly less likely to believe genetics, health-damaging beha viors, health-protective behaviors, and emotions to be the cause of their C HD than were younger participants awaiting surgery. Furthermore, the older participants were significantly more likely to believe they had no control over the disease and that the disease would be gone after surgery, and repo rted fewer postoperative health behavior changes than did younger participa nts. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate significant differences in illness r epresentations as a function of age. Furthermore, differences in postoperat ive health behaviors were consistent with differing illness representations .