Illness Intrusiveness in Veterans with Congestive Heart Failure

Abstract

Illness intrusiveness refers to the lifestyle disruptions sustained by the symptoms and treatment effects of chronic illness. These disruptions can consist of changes in an individual\u27s continued involvement in activities and interests that they once enjoyed, thus compromising quality of life (Devins, 2006). As heart disease continues to be a leading cause of death and a commonly diagnosed disease in the U.S. population, investigating illness intrusiveness in an older adult, CHF population can provide valuable information that could influence interventions designed to address illness intrusiveness in patients\u27 lives. This study used archival data from a previous study of 103 CHF patients treated at a VA hospital who are 60+ years of age. The purpose of this study was to test the three-factor structure of the Illness Intrusiveness Rating Scale (IIRS; Devins et al., 1983) in CHF patients and describe the Life Domain(s) (IIRS subscales) most impacted by CHF. Confirmatory factor analysis determined the three-factor structure of the IIRS to be a good fit for the data of this CHF patient sample, further demonstrating construct validity of the instrument across illness groups. This study also found a significant difference between levels of illness intrusiveness among the three IIRS subscales with the Instrumental Life Domain being the most elevated, as predicted. In addition, this study investigated whether the sociodemographic factors of income, education, and living status are related to levels of perceived illness intrusiveness using one-way between groups analysis of variance (ANOVA). The hypotheses predicting relationships between these sociodemographic variables and illness intrusiveness levels were generally unsupported