Body Image and Depressive Symptoms as Correlates of Self-reported Versus Clinician-reported Physiologic Function

PURPOSE: This study examined the relationships between physiologic function, depressive symptoms, and body image among maintenance cardiac rehabilitation participants. Physiologic function was operationalized as both functional status and functional capacity. METHODS: Participants were 72 men (mean age = 67.3 years) all of whom had experienced a traumatic cardiac event (ie, myocardial infarction, valve replacement surgery, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty), and had completed some type of physician-supervised acute cardiac rehabilitation (ie, phase I and phase II). Measures of body image (social physique anxiety and body appearance satisfaction), self-reported functional status, clinician-reported functional capacity (ie, V0(2) and peak power), and depressive symptoms were collected. RESULTS: Hierarchic multiple regression analyses revealed that both functional capacity and functional status explained significant variance in social physique anxiety (R(2) = 0.11, P<.05 and R(2) = 0.18, P<.05, respectively), whereas only functional status was a significant predictor of body appearance satisfaction (R(2) = 0.37, P<.01). Contrary to our hypotheses, depressive symptoms were not significantly related to either psychosocial or physiologic indices of functional well-being. CONCLUSIONS: Both patient perceptions of functional status and clinical measures of functional capacity are important aspects of psychosocial well-being among cardiac patients.