Association between interoception and self-care in individuals with cardiovascular disease.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between interoceptive sensibility and self-care behaviors in individuals with cardiovascular disease.

Methods and results: Adults with cardiovascular disease were recruited for this cross-sectional descriptive study. Interoceptive sensibility was measured with the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness. Self-care was measured with the Self-Care of Chronic Illness Inventory. Linear regression was used to describe the relationships between interoceptive sensibility and self-care dimensions. Hierarchical linear regression modeling was used to quantify additional explained variance in self-care beyond that of demographic and clinical characteristics. For this study, 387 participants were recruited through an online platform in America. Overall, interoceptive sensibility mostly explained the variance of self-care management (R2 0.399) (compared to the other self-care dimensions). Higher trust was associated with better self-care maintenance (p<0.05) and higher self-care confidence (p=0.01). Higher body listening was associated with better self-care in all dimensions (maintenance p=0.025; monitoring and management p=0.000; confidence p=0.001). Higher noticing was associated with greater self-care monitoring, management and confidence (p=0.01, p<0.05, p=0.01 respectively). Higher distraction was associated with worse self-care maintenance (p=0.001) and lower self-care confidence (p<0.05). Higher self-regulation was associated with worse self-care monitoring (p=0.008). Higher worrying was associated with worse self-care management (p=0.002).

Conclusion: Interoceptive sensibility is associated with all self-care dimensions, especially management. Future studies should further explore these preliminary associations to examine causal relationships using longitudinal study designs, to examine the relationships by adding more potential covariates, and to examine whether changes in interoceptive sensibility led to changes in self-care using other study designs (e.g., RCT).