Introduction

Disease-related stress is a factor disturbing the balance of the organism. Stress experienced by patients subjected to coronarography may be caused by the invasive character of this examination, and a resulting fear of pain and potential complications.

Aim of the study

Analysis of the level of stress and stress-coping strategies among patients subjected to coronarography with regard to such variables as age, sex, marital status, place of residence, and education.

Material and methods

This survey-based study was carried out in the Allenort Cardiology Center in Szczecinek, and involved 124 patients of the Center. Re-search instruments employed in the study were: the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10), the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), and a self-developed questionnaire.

Results

a high level of stress was observed in 50.81% of the respondents, a medium level of stress in 35.48%, and a low level of stress in 13.71%. Analysis of stress-coping strategies (task-oriented coping, emotion-oriented coping, and avoidance-oriented coping) revealed that the majority (75%) of the respondents using a task-orientedapproach had a low level of stress, 62.10% of those adopting an emotion-oriented coping style had a medium level of stress, and 54.03% of those choosing avoidance-oriented coping had a medium level of stress.

Conclusions

In over half of the respondents, coronarography caused great stress. Age was the only sociodemographic factor contributing to the level of stress and the choice of a stress-coping style.