Evaluation of personality type and source of control in patients with coronary heart disease

Introduction: Considering the high incidence and mortality caused by coronary heart diseases in the world and especially in Iran, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the personality and source of control in patients with coronary heart diseases with healthy people.

Methods: In this causal-comparative descriptive study, 35 male patients suffering from coronary heart disease referred to the heart and vascular centers of Shahresari hospitals and 35 male companions of the patients were selected using available sampling method. In order to collect data, Big Five Factors of Personality (NEO) and Rother's Locus of Control (RLOC) scale were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS23 software and descriptive and inferential statistics at a significance level of P≤0.05.Results: Compared to healthy people, patients with coronary heart diseases had significant differences in four factors: neuroticism (0.007), extroversion (0.026), satisfaction and openness (0.07), and agreement and compatibility (0.02), but in the task factor Science (0.88), there was no significant difference between the two groups. Although the difference in the control source score of the patients and the control group was not significant (0.051), in the patients group, this score was determined to be lower than the cut-off point, which indicates the existence of a more external source of control in patients with coronary heart diseases than in healthy individuals.

Results: The findings showed that coronary heart patients had significant differences compared to healthy people in four personality factors: neuroticism (0.007), extroversion (0.02), openness (0.04) and agreeableness (0.02), but in the factor of conscientiousness ( 0.88), no significant difference was observed between the two groups. Although the difference in the source of control score of the two groups was not significant (0.051), in the group of patients, this score was lower than the cut-off point, which indicates the existence of a more external source of control in patients with coronary heart disease than in healthy individuals.

Conclusion: This study showed that patients with coronary heart diseases and healthy people differ in terms of personality types of neuroticism, extroversion, openness and agreeableness. Also, patients have more external source of control than healthy people. Therefore, it is suggested to pay more attention to personality traits in coronary artery patients.