Development and initial validation of the Cardiovascular Disease Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (CVD-AAQ) in an Italian sample of cardiac patients

Abstract

Psychological inflexibility refers to the attempt to decrease internal distress even when doing so is inconsistent with life values, and has been identified as a potential barrier to making and maintaining health behavior changes that are consistent with a heart-healthy lifestyle. Disease- and behavior-specific measures of psychological inflexibility have been developed and utilized in treatment research. However, no specific measure has been created for patients with heart disease. Thus, the CardioVascular Disease Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (CVD-AAQ) was developed. The present study is aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CVD-AAQ and to explore its association with measures of psychological adjustment and cardiovascular risk factors in an Italian sample of 275 cardiac patients. Exploratory factor analysis showed a structural one-factor solution with satisfactory internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The relation with other measures was in the expected direction with stronger correlations for the theoretically consistent variables, supporting convergent and divergent validity. CVD-AAQ scores were associated with general psychological inflexibility, anxiety and depression and inversely correlated with psychological well-being. Moreover, the results showed that CVD-AAQ scores are associated with two relevant risk factors for cardiac patients, namely low adherence to medication and being overweight. In sum, results suggest that the CVD-AAQ is a reliable and valid measure of heart disease-specific psychological inflexibility with interesting clinical applications for secondary prevention care.

Readiness for Discharge from Hospital after Myocardial Infarction: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Moreover, older age was associated with a lower level of acceptance of illness. Other results were reported by Spatola et al, who demonstrated that females and people over 55 years of age had lower AIS scores [ 29 ].…”

Psychological Flexibility and Depression in Advanced CKD and Dialysis

“… 24 , 25 Previous research has shown that worse psychological flexibility was associated with greater depression score among patients with chronic cardiovascular disease. 26 However, that study exclusively examined simple correlations between the AAQ and depression scores. Longitudinal associations between decreased incidence of depression and better psychological flexibility were examined.…”

Messung von schmerzbezogener Erlebensvermeidung: Analyse des Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II-Pain bei Patienten mit chronischem Schmerz

“…Der AAQ-II-P fügt sich ein in eine Reihe von störungsspezifischen Versionen des AAQ. Solche wurden bislang unter anderem für Substanzmissbrauch [33], soziale Phobie [34], Traumata [44] und kardiovaskuläre Erkrankungen [52] entwickelt. Ein aktuelles Review [43] fasst die bereichsspezifischen Varianten zusammen und liefert Hinweise auf deren teststatistische Überlegenheit gegenüber der generischen Erhebung von Erlebensvermeidung und psychologischer Inflexibilität in spezifischen Populationen.…”