Running head: ASSOCIATION OF POSITIVE AFFECT AND QUALITY OF LIFE
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Health-related quality of life is associated with positive affect in patients with coronary heart disease entering cardiac rehabilitation
Stefanie Stauber a Jean-Paul Schmid b Hugo Saner b Hansjörg Znoj c Gaby Saner b Johannes Grolimund b Roland von Känel a,b
a)
Department of General Internal Medicine, Division of Psychosomatic Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Switzerland b)
Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, Swiss Cardiovascular Centre, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Switzerland c)
Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Switzerland
Corresponding author: Stefanie Stauber, M.S. Department of General Internal Medicine; Division of Psychosomatic Medicine Bern University Hospital, Inselspital, CH-3010 Bern / Switzerland Tel.: +41 31 632 20 19; fax: +41 31 382 11 84; e-mail:
[email protected]
ASSOCIATION OF POSITIVE AFFECT AND QUALITY OF LIFE
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Abstract
Health- related quality of life (QoL) is an important and widely used outcome measure in cardiac populations. We examined the relationship between positive affect and health-related quality of life, controlling for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, clinical variables and negative affect. We further investigated the role of gender in this relationship given the wellknown gender differences in cardiovascular health. We enrolled 746 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) before they entered outpatient cardiac rehabilitation. All patients completed the Global Mood Scale and the SF-36 Health Survey. Positive affect was independently associated with mental (p
