Friday, 14 January 2005 - 2:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Faith Matters, Social Support, and Coping in Late Life

Positive Attitude Mediates Prayer Coping and Postoperative Mental Health in Adult and Older Cardiac Patients

Purpose: This prospective study examined how positive attitudes (hope and optimism) mediated the role of using private prayer for coping in postoperative distress (depression and anxiety) of patients (aged 35 to 89) undergoing major cardiac surgery.

Methods: Data were collected from a three-wave survey. The theoretical model was tested with structural equation modeling analysis(sample size 310).

Results: The final model shows that, indirectly through positive attitudes, this faith-based coping and socioeconomic factors (education and fulltime employment) contributed to better postoperative mental health. Patients with lower socioeconomic status tended to pursue prayer. Older patients showed more postoperative distress despite better preoperative mental health. Two weeks prior to surgery, 87.7% of the sample believed that private prayer was important; 74.7% had faith in the efficacy of using prayer in coping with stress; and 88.1% intended to use private prayer to cope with difficulties associated with cardiac surgery. The most popular types of prayer used were "conversation with God" (74.2% of the sample), followed by "accomplishment of needs" (51.4%),"experiencing the divine" (40.1%), and "memorized prayer" (39.7%). Only 74 patients (15.4%) checked the "other types" option. Supporting Pargament's assumptions (2002), in the current sample middle-aged and older patients who used prayer for coping preoperatively experienced less distress one month after a life-altering operation. Expanding prior findings, however, our study identified a mechanism in the association between faith phenomena and mental health: the mediating effect of optimal expectations about the future, enhanced by a spiritual coping strategy, private prayer coping. In other words, optimism and hope might explain the faith effect on wellbeing that has been hypothesized by various researchers (Hood et al., 1996; Miller & Thorensen, 2003; Myer, 2000; Peterson, 2000). It should be noted that prayer coping was more likely to be used by less educated and non-full-time employed cardiac patients.

Implications: Positive attitudes can be considered as a mechanism concerning the faith-based and socioeconomic effect on well-being in this sample. This faith-based phenomenon might be a source of optimal expectations and postoperative wellbeing especially for those with lower socioeconomic status.

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