Age moderates change in disease-related stress among congenital heart disease survivors: a 6-year follow-up.

Aims: As congenital heart disease (CHD) survivors age, they are confronted with elevated risk of cardiovascular morbidity and increasingly complex disease self-management demands. Given that stress is associated with poor physical and psychosocial outcomes, it is crucial to examine how disease-related stress changes over time in this population. However, this outcome has received little research attention to date. This study aimed to identify demographic and clinical predictors of change in disease-related stress over 6 years among CHD survivors.

Methods And Results: Congenital heart disease survivors (N = 252, Mage = 25.6 ± 7.1, 52.9% female) completed the first 13 items of the Responses to Stress Questionnaire, adapted for use among CHD survivors, to assess disease-related stressors at study entry (T1) and 6-year follow-up (T2). Age, gender, estimated family income, and New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class at T1 were entered into mixed linear models to determine their impact on change in disease-related stress. Older age (P < 0.001), lower income (P < 0.001), and presence of functional limitations (NYHA ≥ II) (P < 0.001) predicted greater increases in disease-related stress. When controlling for NYHA, functional class, and income, a significant time by age interaction was identified such that disease-related stress increased over time among those who were adolescents at T1 [b = 4.20, P = 0.010, 95% confidence interval (1.01, 7.40)], but remained stable among young adults.

Conclusion: The transition from adolescence to adulthood may be a period of increasing disease-related stress. Healthcare providers should consider screening adolescents for elevated disease-related stress during transition education and provide resources to bolster resilience.