THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SELF-COMPASSION BETWEEN ILLNESS PERCEPTION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AMONG PATIENTS WITH CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDERS: EVIDENCE FROM PAKISTANI CARDIOLOGY OUTPATIENT SETTINGS

Abstract

Objective: A significant psychological load is imposed on the patients of Cardiovascular disorders, yet the mechanisms associated with illness-attached cognitions to the psychological well being is not fully understood. This study has investigated mediating role of self-compassion linking between psychological well-being and illness-perception among patients with cardiovascular disorders undergoing treatment from outpatient departments of cardiology hospitals in Pakistan.

Method: To explore the correlation among study variables, a cross-sectional correlation research design was used. The study consists of 220 patients with cardiovascular disorders being treated by outpatient departments (Mage = 52.4 years, SD = 11.2; 58.6% men), purposive sampling technique was used to recruit the study participants. The sample was recruited from Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) Lahore, National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (NICVD) Karachi. The study participants were given questionnaires to complete which include; Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief IPQ), the Self-Compassion Scale – Short Form (SCS-SF), and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS). To examine the mediation between study variables Hayes' (2018) PROCESS macro (Model 4) with 5,000 bootstrap resamples was utilized, with age, gender, education, and illness duration was added as covariates.

Results: The study results illustrate that illness perception has negative correlation (significant) with self-compassion (r = −.48, p < .001) as well as psychological well-being (r = −.54, p < .001). whereas, self-compassion significantly positively predicted psychological well-being (β = .41, p < .001). A significant indirect effect of illness perception on the psychological well-being through self-compassion is confirmed by bootstrap mediation analysis (B = −.19, SE = .04, 95% CI [−.27, −.12]). It is highlighted that it accounted for 34.5% of the total effect.

Conclusions: illness perception and psychological well-being is partially mediated by self-compassion among patients with cardiovascular disorders. This illustrates extension of theoretical utility of  Leventhal's Common Sense Model as self-compassion is meadiating psychological meaningful mechanism. The findings also provide an evidence based dimension to integrate self-compassion focused treatment intervention among cardiovascular disorder patients in Pakistan.