Life satisfaction and active coping style are important predictors of recovery from surgery

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to investigate the influence of psychological factors on the recovery of surgical patients and to explore whether there are any psychological variables other than anxiety that have a significant influence on recovery from surgery. METHODS: The participants were 112 adult patients undergoing a variety of surgical procedures. On the day prior to surgery, the Freiburg Personality Questionnaire, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, a coping schedule and the Questionnaire of Social Support were used to measure psychological parameters including personality, anxiety, coping and social support. The quality of the surgical outcome was rated by two independent and blinded surgeons by the length of hospital stay and analgesia and sedation requirements. The ratings controlled for the diagnosis, type of operation, intraoperative complications, postoperative medical problems and health limitations independent of the surgical procedure. RESULTS: Patients who had a complicated recovery were found to have reduced life satisfaction and lower situation-specific self-control expectations. Structural equation modeling revealed direct relationships between recovery from surgery and personality dimensions with the strongest correlations to life satisfaction, extraversion and attainment orientation. CONCLUSION: The data from this study suggests that valid predictions of the course of postoperative recovery need to take into account personality and coping behaviour orientated data as well as clinical variables. No direct influence on recovery could be predicted from preoperative state anxiety, but it seems likely that state anxiety may influence coping behaviour and that it is this that appears to have a significant impact to surgical recovery.