The relationship between knowledge and anxiety about postcoronary sexual activity among wives of postcoronary males

Abstract

Because wives may be influential in discouraging satisfactory postcoronary sexual adjustments among: arried cardiac patients, the motivation for such behavior should be of interest to professionals who work with patients and their families. Avoidance of postcoronary sexual activity may be related to an individual patient's and spouse's misinformation.‐Thus, the hypothesis that greater knowledge about sexual activity and the heart would be related to less anxiety was examined in a group of 30 patients' wives using a self‐administered questionnaire. A significant correlation was found between the scores on knowledge and anxiety tests. These results suggest that increased knowledge may help minimize certain fears and sex‐related problems following an infarction. The need for postcoronary educational and counseling programs for spouses as well as patients is emphasized.