Predictors of depressive symptoms among coronary heart disease patients: A cross-sectional study nine years after coronary artery bypass grafting

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to identify the incidence of depression and its associations with demographic, lifestyle, perceived health, symptoms, treatment, and social support variables in patients 9 years after a coronary artery bypass graft. METHODS: The questionnaire was mailed to 152 surviving patients who had undergone a coronary artery bypass graft 9 years earlier, and who had been respondents in an earlier study. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, and social support was measured using Social Support from the Network Scale. Descriptive statistics and the linear regression method were used for analysis. RESULTS: Depressive symptoms were reported by one fourth of the patients. The predictors for depressive symptoms included gender, perceived health, cardiac ischemic symptoms at rest, and emotional social support, which explained 24% of the variance. Controlling for gender revealed that the predictors for women and men were different. CONCLUSIONS: Depression is more difficult to predict in men than in women. (Heart Lung (R) 2010;39:421-431.)