Psychological factors associated with exercise self-efficacy in the recipients of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator

Abstract

Background Insufficient exercise affects the health of patients who have implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlations between exercise self-efficacy (ESE) and its associated psychological factors in ICD recipients. Methods This cross-sectional study included individuals who had undergone ICD implantation at the cardiology department of a medical centre in Taiwan. A face-to-face survey was conducted. The survey questionnaire included questions regarding the participants’ demographics, perceived health (PH), ICD shock–related anxiety (ICD-SRA), self-care self-efficacy (SSE), perceived exercise benefit (PE-benefit), perceived exercise barrier (PE-barrier), and ESE. Data were analysed using SPSS 20.0 Software. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were also performed to evaluate the predictive effects of the aforementioned factors on ESE. Results A total of 52 ICD recipients were enrolled. ESE was negatively correlated with ICD-SRA (r = −0.511; p < 0.01) and PE-barrier (r = −0.563; p < 0.01), but positively correlated with SSE (r = 0.339; p < 0.05) and PE-benefit (r = 0.464; p < 0.01). The stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that PE-barrier, PE-benefit, and ICD-SRA effectively predicted ESE in the participants. Conclusions ESE may be improved by overcoming PE-barrier, ICD-SRA and enhancing PE-benefit. Consequently, improving ESE may enhance the health benefits of exercise.