Intergenerational Effects in Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients

Intergenerational transmission of illness behaviors and health outcomes has been explored in individuals with chronic medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease. Research has demonstrated a relationship between negative illness behaviors---preoccupation with illness or denial of disease---and poor cardiovascular outcomes, including cardiac disease severity. Such behaviors may be transmitted from parents to offspring via modeling. Parental modeling of illness behavior has also been found to impact healthcare utilization. Adult participants' illness behavior was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between perceived parental illness behavior and participants' cardiac disease severity. Additionally, participants' illness behavior was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between perceived parental illness behavior and participants' healthcare utilization. Outpatient cardiac rehabilitation patients (n=116) completed measures regarding their illness behaviors and recollection of their parents' illness behaviors. These variables were analyzed to determine any relation to left ventricular ejection fraction, number of outpatient physician's visits, and number of emergency room (ER) visits. Results showed a significant relationship between perceived parental illness behavior and participants' illness behavior, but no evidence for indirect effects or direct effects on outcome variables. When maternal illness behavior served as the predictor, participant illness behavior was significantly associated with frequency of ER visits, suggesting that mothers' behavior may play a role in predicting ER presentations. These results build upon previous research on familial effects on cardiac-related outcomes and healthcare utilization.