Sense of coherence as a predictor of quality of life in persons with coronary heart disease surviving cardiac arrest.

The unique contribution of sense of coherence to explained variance in quality of life was studied in 149 persons with coronary heart disease who survived cardiac arrest. Using hierarchical multiple regression, 16 predictors, including 5 social status variables related to poor health vulnerability, perceived social support, self-esteem, and 9 variables reflecting instability and work of the chronic illness trajectory, accounted for 50% of variance in quality of life. The addition of sense of coherence resulted in a 15% increment to the explained variance (total R2 = .64). As a strong independent predictor of quality of life, sense of coherence has promise as a variable that might be strengthened by nursing interventions and merits continued study.