Comparisons of Demographic and Health Variables. Pearson correlation analysis did not indicate a significant relationship between age and confidence in self-management of AF (p = .468) or BMI and confidence and AF self-management (p = .5).
Independent samples t-tests were used to assess differences in CAFS scores between different demographic, health, and AF specific variables. Interestingly, results indicated no significant differences between mean scores for women (m = 29.7, SD = 8.8) and men (m = 28.7, SD = 8.7),t (100.394) = -.608, p = .545. No significant differences were detected between those with CHA2DS2VASc scores of two or more and those with one or less t (48.1) = -.602, p = .550. There were also no significant differences between those with past diagnoses of MDD (m = 27.5, SD = 8.4) and those without (m = 29.3, SD = 8.8),t (15.7) = .743, p = .468. However, there was a significant difference between scores for those with past diagnoses of GAD (m = 25.3, SD = 6.6) and those without (m = 29, SD = 9.0), t (31.2) = 2.49, p = .018, likely indicating that those with anxiety have less confidence in self-management of AF than those without anxiety.
Related to procedural treatment of AF, an independent samples t-test suggested no significant difference in confidence scores between those patients who had undergone an ablation for AF management (m = 30.2, SD = 7.0) and those who had not (m = 28.7, SD =9), t (103.3) = -.945,p = .347. There was also no significant difference in confidence scores between those who had undergone an LAA occlusion (m = 26.2, SD = 3.1) than those who had not (m = 29.5, SD = 8.7), t (7.59) = 1.98,p = .085. Interestingly, there was a significant difference in confidence scores between those who had undergone a cardioversion for AF (m = 32, SD = 7.2) and those who had not (m = 27.4, SD = 9.0), t(104.4) = -.297, p = .004), suggesting those who had undergone cardioversion had significantly more confidence in self-management of AF.
Related to medication for AF management, independent samples t-tests indicated that there were no significant differences between those patients prescribed anticoagulants (m = 29.8, SD = 8.6) and those that were not (m = 26.6, SD = 8.9), t (36.0) = -1.58, p = .123, or between those who were prescribed beta-blockers (m = 29.4, SD = 9.0) and those that were not (m = 28.2, SD = 8.6), t(63.6) = -.659, p = .513. Interestingly, there was a significant difference between those who were prescribed anti-arrhythmic medications (m = 32.7, SD = 7.9) and those that were not (m = 26.7, SD = 8.6), t(97.0) = -3.767, p < .001, suggesting that individuals prescribed anti-arrhythmic medications for AF had greater confidence in self-management than individuals without anti-arrhythmic medications.
Comparison with Quality of Life . Lastly, a simple linear regression analysis was used to assess the ability of the CALM total scores to predict AF quality of life using AFEQT total scores (Figure 1). Results of this analysis suggested that CALM total scores predicted increased AFEQT total scores (r2 = .142,p < .001). In other words, greater confidence in AF self-management predicted better quality of life with AF, with 14.2% of variance in quality of life being explained by confidence in AF self-management.