IngentaConnect Gender differences in cardiac patients: A longitudinal investigat...

Authors: Hunt-Shanks, Tiffany¹; Blanchard, Christopher²; Reid, Robert³

Source: Psychology, Health and Medicine, Volume 14, Number 3, May 2009 , pp. 375-385(11)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

Female cardiac patients frequently experience greater anxiety and depression and engage in less exercise when compared with their male counterparts. This study considered whether exercise had similar effects on male and female cardiac patients' autonomic anxiety, negative affect and depression, and whether exercise behavior explained the gender difference in their affective functioning (e.g. autonomic anxiety, negative affect and depression). Eight hundred one participants completed the Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) and the leisure score index (LSI) of the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire at baseline, 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months. Female cardiac patients had greater autonomic anxiety, negative affect and depression and reduced exercise when compared with male cardiac patients at all time points. Although exercise was significantly related to affective outcomes at various time points for both men and women, gender did not moderate any of the exercise/affective relationships, and exercise did not mediate any of the gender/affective relationships. Further research is needed to clarify the complex relationships between gender, exercise, and the affective functioning of cardiac patients.

Keywords: cardiovascular disease; anxiety; depression; mediation; moderation

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/13548500902866939

Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, Brock University, St Catherines, Ontario, Canada 2: Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 3: Minto Prevention and Rehabilitation Centre, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

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Gender differences in cardiac patients: A longitudinal investigation of exercise, autonomic anxiety, negative affect and depression