The Relationship of Discomforting Factors with Coping StrategiesAmong Patients in Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Units

Background: Patientsincardiacsurgeryintensivecareunitsareaffectedbydifferentdiscomfortingfactorsandusedifferentstrate-gies for their management. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of discomforting factors with coping strategies among patients hospitalized in cardiac surgery intensive care units. Methods: This descriptive - correlational study was done in 2016. A convenience sample of 110 patients was drawn from the cardiac surgery intensive care unit of Amir - al - momenin heart surgery center, Kordkuy, Iran. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire,theDiscomfortingFactorsinCardiacSurgeryIntensiveCareUnitQuestionnaire,andJalowiecCopingScale. Pearson correlation analysis, the one - way analysis of variance, the paired - sample t - test and the Tukey’s post hoc test were used to analyze the data. Data analysis was performed via the SPSS software (v. 16.0) and at a significance level of less than 0.05. Results: The mean score of discomforting factors was greater than the moderate level (74.08 ± 16.93). Participants used emotion -focusedcopingstrategiesmorethanproblem-focusedones. Discomfortingfactorswereinverselycorrelatedwithproblem-focused strategies (r = - 0.266; P = 0.005) and directly correlated with emotion-focused strategies (r = 0.247; P = 0.009). Conclusions: Patientsincardiacsurgeryintensivecareunitssufferfromthenegativeeffectsof differentdiscomfortingfactorsand use emotion - focused coping strategies more than problem - focused strategies for the management of the factors.