Psychological factors and self-rated health: An observative study on cardiological patients.

This study investigated the association of illness representations, awareness of bodily states and health complaints to self-rated health in  = 150 consecutive patients with heart disease (ischaemic disease, heart failure and heart valve disease) and explored differences between 'health optimist' and 'health pessimist' patients. After controlling for medical variables, health complaints accounted for 14.2 per cent of patients' self-rated health, and illness representations contributed for another 16.