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Highlights of Papers in Clinical Investigations Section: Illness Representations According to Age and Effects on Health Behaviors Following Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery
Author(s) -
Gump BB,
Matthews KA,
Scheier MF
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1046/j.1532-5415.2001.49302456.x
Subject(s) - medicine , disease , coronary artery bypass surgery , coronary artery disease , bypass surgery , artery , surgery
Illness representations—the perception of what the cause of a disease is and its impact on symptoms, duration, consequences, and control of the illness—differ with age. In this study of 309 patients scheduled for coronary bypass graft surgery, older patients were more likely to view old age as the cause of their coronary artery disease than genetics, health‐damaging behaviors, health‐protective behaviors, or emotion in comparison with younger patients awaiting surgery. Furthermore, older patients were substantially more likely to believe that they had no control over their disease and thatthe disease would be eliminated after surgery and to report less postoperative health‐behavior changes than younger patients.