The factors affecting comfort and the comfort levels of patients hospitalized in the coronary intensive care unit: A descriptive-analytical study

Esin S. Dogan; Cansu K. Sahin; Meral Besli; Ozlem E. Yildirim

doi:10.15537/smj.2025.46.5.20240702

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Table 1

-Demographic characteristics of the patients (N=275).

Variables	n (%)
Age (years), mean±SD (min-max)	61.66±14.53 (21-93)
Length of stay in CICU (days), mean±SD (min-max)	3.37±2.99 (1-12)
Gender
Female	108 (39.3)
Male	167 (60.7)
Marital status
Single	40 (14.5)
Married	235 (85.5)
Family structure
Alone	14 (3.6)
Nuclear family	251 (91.6)
Extended family	10 (4.7)
Education status
Illiterate	11 (4.0)
Literate	22 (8.0)
Primary school	103 (37.5)
High school	113 (41.1)
University	26 (9.5)
Place of residence
Village	59 (21.5)
Rural	98 (35.6)
Urban	118 (42.9)
Perceived income status
Income-expenses equal	252 (91.6)
Expenses exceed income	23 (8.4)
Primary reason for treatment in the CICU
Myocardial infarction	65 (23.6)
Angiography	58 (21.1)
Heart failure	70 (25.5)
Dysrhythmia	27 (9.8)
Surgical procedures^*	31 (11.3)
Other^†	24 (8.7)
Previous hospitalization
None	99 (36.0)
Once	100 (36.4)
2-3 times	22/23 (16.4)
4-5 times	13/18 (11.3)
The reason for previous hospitalization (n=176)
Related to CD	143 (81.3)
Not related to CD	33 (18.7)
Previous treatment in ICU
No	150 (54.5)
Once	85 (30.9)
≥2 times^‡	40 (14.6)
The reason for previous treatment in the ICU (n=125)
Related to CD	106 (84.8)
Not related to CD	19 (15.2)
Positive effect of having visitors
Yes	259 (94.2)
No	16 (5.8)
Communication with nurses
Good	73 (26.6)
Very good	202 (73.4)

Values are presented as numbers and percentages (%).

CICU: coronary intensive care unit, CD: cardiovascular disease, ICU: intensive care unit, SD: standard deviation, min: minimum, max: maximum

↵* Ablation (n=20); pacemaker (n=6); and by-pass (n=3).
↵^† Pericardial effusion (n=4); pseudo aneurysm (n=1); peripheral artery disease (n=3); aortic stenosis (n=1); heart valve disease (n=3); cardiomyopathies (n=3); hypertension (n=8); and post-op infection (n=1).
↵^‡ Second (n=16); third (n=9); fourth (n=6); and fifth (n=9).

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Table 2

-The comfort levels of patients according to demographic characteristics (N=275).

Variables	GC	PC	EC	PSC	SCC
Gender
Female (n=108)	2.05±0.19	2.10±0.29	2.28±0.27	1.86±0.21	1.77±0.32
Male (n=167)	2.11±0.25	2.18±0.35	2.27±0.30	1.93±0.25	1.89±0.39
Significance	t= -2.248/p=0.025	t= -2.129/p=0.034	t=0.300/p=0.765	t= -2.578/p=0.010	t= -2.727/p=0.007
Family structure
Alone (n=14)	2.19±0.22^a	2.16±0.29	2.50±0.25^a	1.93±0.19	1.93±0.35
Nuclear family (n=251)	2.09±0.23^b	2.15±0.38	2.27±0.28^b	1.91±0.24	1.85±0.37
Extended family (n=10)	1.89±0.19^c	2.08±0.25	2.05±0.34^c	1.75±0.24	1.60±0.24
Significance	KW=9.613/p=0.008/a=b>c*	KW=0.8584/p=0.651	KW=11.985/p<0.002/a>b, b=c, b=a*	KW=4.528/p=0.104	KW=5.864/p=0.053
Perceived income status
Income-expenses equal (n=252)	2.10±0.23	2.16±0.34	2.27±0.28	1.91±0.24	1.87±0.36
Expenses exceed income (n=23)	2.00±0.20	2.07±0.26	2.28±0.35	1.82±0.24	1.60±0.27
Significance	u=2198.000/p=0.055	u=2352.500/p=0.134	u=2198.000/p=0.055	u=2243.000/p=0.071	u=1631.500/p<0.001
Occupational status
Working (n=94)	2.09±0.21^a	2.14±0.36^a	2.23±0.27	1.93±0.22^a	1.86±0.38^a
Not working (n=86)	2.04±0.21^b	2.08±0.29^b	2.29±0.26	1.85±0.22^b	1.76±0.34^b
Retired (n=95)	2.13±0.24^c	2.22±0.32^c	2.29±0.32	1.93±0.25^c	1.90±0.36^c
Significance	F=3.138/p=0.045/c>a=b†	F=3.890p=0.022/c>a=b†	F=1.188/p=0.306	F=3.269/p=0.040/a=c>b†	F=3.292/p=0.039/c>a=b†

Values are presented as means ± standard deviations (SDs). *Dunn-Bonferroni test, †Tukey test. Significance at p<0.0083. GC: general comfort,

PC: physical comfort, EC: environmental comfort, PSC: psychospiritual comfort, SCC: sociocultural comfort, t: independent t-test, u: Mann-Whitney-U test, F: one-way analysis of variance test, r: Pearson correlation test

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Table 3

-The comfort levels of patients according to features related to the intensive care experiences (N=275).

Variables	GC	PC	EC	PSC	SCC
Primary reason for treatment in ICU
Myocardial infarction (n=65)	2.14±0.22^a	2.23±0.30	2.30±0.35	1.93±0.41	1.95±0.39^a
Angiography (n=58)	2.05±0.23^b	2.09±0.35	2.20±0.27	1.90±0.23	1.82±0.34^b
Heart failure (n=70)	2.09±0.24^c	2.13±0.31	2.31±0.32	1.92±0.27	1.83±0.38^c
Dysrhythmia (n=27)	2.13±0.21^d	2.24±0.28	2.35±0.28	1.86±0.22	1.93±0.29^d
Surgical procedures(n=31)	2.02±0.22^e	2.05±0.37	2.23±0.33	1.88±0.16	1.70±0.37^e
Other (n=24)	2.03±0.26^f	2.12±0.38	2.23±0.34	1.44±0.24	1.76±0.36^f
Significance	KW=12.133/p=0.033/a=d>e=f, b=c=e=f*	KW=10.940/p=0.053	KW=9.854/p=0.079	KW=5.197/p=0.392	KW=14.193/p=0.014/a=d>e=f, b=c*
The reason for previous hospitalization (n=176)
Related to CD (n=143)	2.07±0.24	2.12±0.34	2.27±0.30	1.89±0.37	1.81±0.37
Not related to CD (n=33)	2.20±0.20	2.28±0.27	2.42±0.25	1.97±0.28	1.96±0.32
Significance	t= -2.924/p=0.004	t= -2.622/p=0.010	t= -2.558/p=0.011	t= -1.647/p=0.101	t= -2.256/p=0.028
Communication with nurses
Good (n=73)	2.06±0.25	2.10±0.33	2.26±0.32	1.89±0.29	1.77±0.35
Very good (n=202)	2.10±0.22	2.16±0.33	2.27±0.27	1.91±0.22	1.87±0.37
Significance	t= -1.397/p=0.163	t= -1.384/p=0.167	t= -0.263/p=0.792	t= -0.360/p=0.720	t= -2.104/p=0.036

Values are presented as means ± standard deviations (SDs). *Dunn-Bonferroni test. Significance at p<0.00167. GC: general comfort,

PC: physical comfort, EC: environmental comfort, PSC: psychospiritual comfort, SCC: sociocultural comfort, t: independent t-test

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Table 4

-Variables predicting patient comfort levels.

Variables	General comfort					Physical comfort					Environmental comfort					Sociocultural comfort
Variables	B	SE	β	t/p	VIF	B	SE	β	t/p	VIF	B	SE	β	t/p	VIF	B	SE	β	t/p	VIF
Models	R=0.330, R²=0.109, F=4.161, p=0.001, Durbin-Watson=1.931					R=0.189, R²=0.036, F=3.365, p=0.019, Durbin-Watson=1.900					R=0.206, R²=0.042, F=3.835, p=0.023, Durbin-Watson=1.834					R=0.392, R²=0.154, F=5.109, p<0.001, Durbin-Watson=2.261
Constant	1.860	0.090	-	18.858/<0.001		2.067	0.081	-	25.549/<0.001	-	2.073	0.088	-	23.454/<0.001	-	1.060	0.314	-	3.376/<0.01	-
Gender	0.019	0.052	0.041	0.371/0.711	2.306	-0.002	0.056	-0.03	-0.0360/0.971	1.927	-	-	-	-	-	0.179	0.066	0.242	2.712/0.07^*	1.590
Family structure	0.026	0.035	0.056	0.747/0.456	1.065	-	-	-	-	-	0.046	0.043	0.079	1.060/0.291	1.002	-	-	-	-
Occupational status	0.052	0.029	0.195	1.794/0.075	2.257	0.069	0.034	0.168	2.042/0.042^*	1.903	-	-	-	-	-	-0.012	0.021	-0.048	-0.552/0.582	1.107
Perceived income status	-	-	-	-	-						-	-	-	-	-	-0.091	0.047	-0.145	-1.942/0.054	1.500
Primary reason for treatment in CICU	-0.021	0.011	-0.142	-1.900/0.059	1.060	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-0.039	0.017	-0.167	-2.273/0.024^*	1.081
Communication with nurses	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.139	0.056	0.176	2.460/0.015^*	1.018
The reason for previous hospitalization	0.105	0.045	0.175	2.358/0.020^*	1.055	-0.019	0.013	-0.092	-1.518/0.130	1.024	0.146	0.056	0.194	2.606/0.010^*	1.002	0.076	0.068	0.082	1.119/0.265	1.083