Midlife women's experiences living with heart disease

The purpose of this paper is to report results from a qualitative field stu dy of 15 women with heart disease. The study was conducted over a two-year period in a number of clinical settings to document women's subjective expe riences after angioplasty or cardiac surgery. The phenomena of interest wer e participants' perceptions of their health, the impact cardiac illness was having on their lives, lifestyle changes they had engaged in since diagnos is, and how they felt about having heart disease. Qualitative content analy sis was applied to field notes and in-depth interviews. The overall sense o f living with heart disease for these midlife women was one of paradox. Imp lications of their contradictory experiences are discussed as they apply to nursing practice. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.