Patient and spouse perceptions of the patient's heart disease and their associations with received and provided social support and undermining

Previous research has consistently documented the contribution of both illness perceptions and social support to adjustment to illness. This study combines these two approaches by examining: (1) Do patient and spouse perceptions of the patient’s heart disease differ? (2) Are each partner’s perceptions of the patient’s disease associated with his/her perceptions of spouse support and undermining? (3) Are differences between patient and spouse perceptions of the patient’s heart disease associated with spouse support and undermining? (4) Are there specific patterns of patient and spouse perceptions that are related to support/undermining? Fifty heart disease patients and their spouses reported overall similar illness perceptions. Spouses who held relatively negative illness perceptions reported providing more support and more undermining whereas patients with negative perceptions reported less received support. In addition, the data revealed several specific combinations of patient/spouse perceptions that were associated with support/undermining (e.g., lower support perceived by patients with a long disease timeline, whose spouses perceived a shorter timeline). In conclusion, patients’ and spouses’ illness perceptions are related to the support they receive and provide, respectively, and therefore should both be targeted in interventions.