Fear of movement (kinesiophobia) - an underestimated problem in Polish patients at various stages of coronary artery disease.

Introduction: The importance of the problem of reduced motor activity in the prophylaxis and treatment of many diseases has resulted in numerous adaptations of a diagnostic tool, both for the disease and for linguistic and cultural versions. This also applies to cardiovascular diseases. The significance of the problem, and encouraging results of several studies, have led to a wider use of this tool. This also applies to people suffering cardiologically in Poland, where this problem is poorly understood. This was the inspiration to undertake research on the explanation of the reasons for the limitation in the activation of cardiac patients.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the level of kinesiophobia in patients with CAD, and to assess its possible association with physical activity (PA), socio-demographic determinants and morbidity.

Material and methods: The study was cross-sectional and included 217 hospitalized patients with CAD: 94 women and 123 men; aged 67.39 years. PA was assessed using the short version of IPAQ, and kinesiophobia was assessed using TSK Heart in Polish adaptation. TSK HeartIPAQ correlations were found.

Results: More than 70% of the patients revealed high levels of kinesiophobia (TSK>37 points). There were no TSK associations with gender, BMI, socio-demographic variables, other conditions and duration of cardiovascular disease. The disease is the main cause of kinesiophobia and regardless of its nature, negatively affects the level of PA.

Conclusions: The quality of life of patients with CAD at various stages and the effectiveness of cardiolog-ical rehabilitation are conditioned by PA.