Title

Illness perception, cognitive function and cardiac rehabilitation expectations among patients of post coronary artery disease: A mixed-method analysis

Authors

Bharathi Shankar¹, Shankar Shanmugam Rajendran²,*, Anandhi Duraikannu¹, Amaravathy Theerthan¹, Easter Raj Emmanuel Chandra¹, Jeyakomala Palani¹ & Sailaja Easter Raj Emmanuel¹

Affiliation

¹Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, College of Nursing, Madras Medical College, The TN Dr MGR Medical University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; ²Department of Nursing Research, College of Nursing, Madras Medical College, The TN Dr MGR Medical University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Bharathi Shankar - E-mail: bharathiiuma@gmail.com
Shankar Shanmugam Rajendran - E-mail: shankarshaki@yahoo.com
Anandhi Duraikannu - E-mail: danandhi01@gmail.com
Amaravathy Theerthan - E-mail: amarajjeevan@gmail.com
Easter Raj Emmanuel Chandra - E-mail: jerecare@gmail.com
Jeyakomala Palani - E-mail: koushi.rk1@gmail.com
Sailaja Easter Raj Emmanuel - E-mail: shailajacaru@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received September 1, 2026; Revised September 30, 2026; Accepted September 30, 2026, Published September 30, 2026
 

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of morbidity worldwide, affecting not only physical health but also cognition, psychological well-being and engagement in recovery programmes. Therefore, it is of interest to assess the illness perception, cognitive function and cardiac rehabilitation expectations among 60 post-CAD patients attending a tertiary-care cardiology centre in Chennai. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ) were administered, followed by semi-structured interviews with a qualitative subsample. Findings showed that 80% of patients had normal cognitive function while 86.67% reported a high perceived illness threat, with a significant negative correlation between the two (r = -0.35, p = 0.01). Qualitative analysis revealed three themes: perceived uncertainty and stress as illness triggers, importance of family support and barriers to rehabilitation, particularly time and livelihood constraints. Thus, data shows the need for integrated cardiac rehabilitation programmes that address cognitive, emotional and contextual dimensions of recovery.

Keywords

Coronary artery disease (CAD); illness perception; cognitive function; cardiac rehabilitation (CR); mixed-method study; brief illness perception questionnaire; mini-mental state examination (MMSE)

Citation

Shankar et al. Bioinformation 22(9): 6067-0 (2026)

Edited by

Ritik Kashwani

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.