Gratitude Intervention in Promoting Self-care in Patients With Myocardial Infarction

Introduction: Positive psychological's constructs have shown a direct effect on adherence to pharmacological treatment, diet, physical activity and general commitment to health, in the same way that negative ones, such as depression, anxiety and stress, are associated with worse cardiovascular outcomes and are prevalent in patients with infarction. Objective: To verify whether a gratitude intervention can improve self-care and improve negative psychological states in patients with recent myocardial infarction. Methods: Randomized, parallel clinical trial. The inclusion criteria will be patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) with less than 12 hours of evolution and undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI). Participants will respond to the socio-demographic and risk factors questionnaire and self-care (ASA-A), anxiety, depression and stress (DASS-21) and gratitude (QG-6) scales. They will be drawn into the gratitude intervention group or neutral events group according to the randomization list. Patients in the intervention group will be tasked with writing down 3 to 5 situations a day for which they are grateful, for 14 days. Patients in the control group will be asked to write down 3 to 5 situations a day that have impacted them, whether good or bad. Both groups will be reassessed after the intervention and after 6 months. Expected results: It is expected that the intervention group will improve self-care and the feeling of gratitude, modify behaviors and decrease negative affects, while the group without intervention will remain unchanged from the beginning of the study to 6 months.