The review synthesised 26 studies that measured heart-focused anxiety with the Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire or HAF-17 in 9,628 adults with confirmed cardiovascular disease across eight countries. Clinically elevated anxiety ranged from 15% to 49%, varying with population, timing of assessment and cut-off, and was associated with depressive symptoms, illness perception and quality of life. Two prospective cohorts reported independent prediction of major adverse cardiac events and mortality after myocardial infarction, with hazard ratios of 1.30 to 1.59.
Why it is interesting: Sets a disease-specific anxiety, separable from generalised anxiety, against prognosis after myocardial infarction, with avoidance of exertion as the reported pathway.