ArticleGeneral hospital psychiatry
Is it better to cultivate positive affect or optimism? Predicting improvements in medical adherence following a positive psychology intervention in patients with acute coronary syndrome.
Article in General hospital psychiatry. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Positive Psychology Intervention in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Survivors (PATH): A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial.Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN · 2024Trial
- Predictors of Long-Term Exercise Engagement in Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: The Role of Physical Activity Enjoyment.Behavior therapy · 2023Trial
- Longitudinal associations between positive psychological factors and cardiovascular health.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Article
- The relationship between flourishing, social support, and regulatory emotional self-efficacy in maintenance hemodialysis patients: a network analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Feasibility of a positive psychology intervention (PATH) in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation survivors: Randomized pilot trial design and methods.Contemporary clinical trials · 2023Article
- Positive Psychology Interventions in Medical Populations: Critical Issues in Intervention Development, Testing, and Implementation.Affective science · 2023Review
- A Qualitative Study on Patients' Use of Emotion Regulation Strategies During Therapeutic Relationships.The British journal of occupational therapy · 2023Article
- Positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular disease: Exploring mechanistic and developmental pathways.Social and personality psychology compass · 2021Article
- The Impact of Psychological Functioning on Cardiovascular Disease.Current atherosclerosis reports · 2020Review
- Exploring the feasibility and impact of positive psychology-motivational interviewing interventions to promote positive affect and physical activity in type 2 diabetes: design and methods from the BEHOLD-8 and BEHOLD-16 clinical trials.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveAdherence to health behaviors following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is strongly associated with superior prognosis. Both optimism and positive affect may play important roles in such adherence. However, the relationship between changes in these constructs in the context of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) and adherence to health behaviors is not fully understood. Accordingly, we aimed to examine these relationships among a cohort of post-ACS patients receiving a PPI.
methodPost-ACS participants who received a PPI during a factorial trial (N = 128) completed self-report measures of positive affect and optimism, along with the Medical Outcomes Study Specific Adherence Scale items for diet, physical activity, and medication adherence, over 16 weeks. The baseline and longitudinal effects of positive affect and optimism-representing changes in those constructs-on adherence were analyzed using mixed effects regression models.
resultsPositive affect, but not optimism, was longitudinally associated with greater overall adherence to health behaviors (positive affect: β = 0.057, p = .006; optimism: β = 0.032, p = .36), with the effect driven by physical activity adherence (positive affect: β = 0.040, p = .004; optimism: β = 0.005, p = .83).
conclusionChanges in positive affect may be more strongly associated with post-ACS adherence than optimism; this could have important implications for the development of PPIs to promote adherence.
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