Table 2.

Prevalence of issues and concerns in rank order.

Issue/item	n	%
Being physically restricted	126	65.6
Lacking energy	115	60.3
Being short of breath	115	59.6
Thinking I will never be the same again	110	57.0
Not sleeping well	98	50.5
Thinking about having another heart event	93	48.4
Being irritated by little things	93	48.4
Thinking my condition might get worse	91	46.9
Having chest discomfort	87	45.1
Avoiding situations and activities	86	45.0
Being unable to do things that I know will improve my health	87	44.8
Having difficulty concentrating	86	44.6
Being overly aware of my heart in my chest	85	44.0
Thinking that I am not the person that I used to be	84	43.8
Not knowing how my family will cope if something should happen to me	82	42.9
Having difficulty remembering things	78	40.4
Not knowing what the future holds for me	77	40.3
Avoiding activities that make my heart beat faster	76	39.4
Being unsure about how much exercise or physical activity I should be doing	75	39.3
Having changes in my usual roles	72	37.9
Being tearful more easily than before	72	37.1
Forgetting things more than before	70	36.6
Not knowing what will happen to other people if I die	68	35.4
Having to make difficult lifestyle changes because of my heart condition	65	33.9
Being emotionally exhausted	63	33.3
Being afraid of dying	64	33.0

N = 189–194 with variations due to incompletions in some questionnaires.

Only items endorsed by >33% of participants shown.