Applicability of Cognitive Adaptation Theory to Predicting Adjustment to Heart Disease After Coronary Angioplasty

The purpose of this study was to determine whether cognitive adaptation theory (i.e., cognitively responding to challenges to world assumptions) would predict positive adjustment to heart disease in the face of a recurrent event. Men and women who were treated for a coronary event with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty ( N = 278) were interviewed in the hospital and then 6 months later. Indicators of cognitive adaptation theory (self-esteem, optimism, mastery) and adjustment were assessed. In general, cognitive adaptation indicators predicted positive adjustment, sometimes showing stronger relations for those who faced a recurrent event. In addition, patients' cognitions were robust over time, meaning that they were not affected by recurrent events. Patients' beliefs about the angioplasty decision, however, showed differential relations to adjustment, depending on whether they sustained a recurrence.