When the heart is in danger – as is true during a myocardial infarction (MI) – this is life-threatening and as such can provoke specific fear: so-called cardiac anxiety. Both general anxiety and depression are associated with cardiac prognosis in MI-patients. However, as most treatment studies have not shown beneficial effects on cardiac prognosis, the need to examine specific aspects of anxiety and depression post-MI has been advocated.

We examined whether cardiac anxiety can be reliably assessed with the Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ) in 237 hospitalized MI-patients. Cross-sectional associations were explored, as well as possible trajectories of cardiac anxiety in the year post-MI (by latent class-analysis) and its association with quality of life. Finally, the prognostic association of cardiac anxiety with major adverse cardiac events (MACE) including all-cause mortality was examined with cox-regression-survival analysis.

The CAQ is a valid and reliable instrument in MI-patients and assessed fear, attention, avoidance of physical exercise, and safety-seeking behavior. Higher cardiac anxiety was associated with more psychological distress but lower severity in cardiac injury. In the year post-MI four cardiac anxiety trajectories were identified; higher cardiac anxiety was associated with worse quality of life. CAQ score significantly predicted MACE in a five-year-follow-up period, even after adjustment for age, cardiac disease severity and depressive symptoms (HRbaseline: 1.60 [95% CI: 1.05–2.45], P = 0.029; HR3-months: 1.71 [0.99–2.59]; P = 0.054).

Cardiac anxiety is an important and potentially modifiable factor in the treatment of MI-patients: it is prevalent and associated with quality of life and cardiac prognosis.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.