Aim: The aim is to describe experiences of daily life of women and men during the first four to six months after a myocardial infarction. The focus is on problems, managing problems and support from their network.

Background: A cardiac event is traumatic and may influence well-being during a significant period of time. Few qualitative studies have investigated experiences of both women and men after a myocardial infarction and remarkably little research has been conducted on men’s experiences.

Design: The study design was descriptive, retrospective and qualitative.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 women and 19 men from January 2000 to November 2001. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: Three themes were generated from the analysis; ‘Threatening ordinary life’, ‘Struggling for control’ and ‘The ambiguous network’. Physical symptoms and emotional distress were the most commonly described problems during the first months after a myocardial infarction. The informants manage the problems by negotiating with themselves, relying on their own capabilities, changing attitudes and behaviours and taking their own decisions and actions. The network was generally supportive but rather often the informants also experienced communication problems when they interacted with their network.

Conclusions: Women and men strive for balance between problems and resources in daily life after a myocardial infarction. How well they succeeded depends on how secure they feel how well they communicate their needs to their network and how sensitive their network is to their spoken and unspoken needs.

Relevance to clinical practice: The findings provide an insight into what kind of problems women and men may experience after myocardial infarction and how caregivers can aid them to increase security in their daily life. Some risk characteristics that may have increased their problems in daily life are suggested, for women and men respectively.

OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to compare coping, social support, and quality of life in Swedish women and men 1 month after myocardial infarction.

DESIGN: The study design was cross-sectional and descriptive-comparative.

SETTING: The study took place in 1 hospital service area in the middle of Sweden.

SUBJECTS: The sample consisted of 74 women and 97 men.

INSTRUMENTS: The Jalowiec Coping Scale, the Social Network and Social Support Questionnaire, the Short Form-36 Health Survey, and the Quality of Life Index-Cardiac Version were used.

RESULTS: Compared with men, women used more evasive and supportive coping and rated psychologic aspects of the heart disease as more problematic to manage. More women perceived available support from friends and grandchildren, and more men perceived available support from their partner. Women rated lower levels in physical and psychologic dimensions of quality of life.

CONCLUSION: The first month after myocardial infarction is a susceptible period especially for women. They used more evasive and supportive coping and experienced a lower quality of life compared with men.

Aim. This paper describes gender differences in perceived coping, social support and quality of life 1, 4 and 12 months after myocardial infarction.

Background. There is a shortage of studies with a longitudinal research design investigating coping, social support and quality of life in women and men after myocardial infarction.

Methods. A longitudinal, descriptive and comparative design was used for the study, which included 74 women and 97 men. At 12 months, 60 women and 88 men remained. Data were collected using the Jalowiec Coping Scale, a social support questionnaire, the SF-36 Health Survey (health-related quality of life) and the Quality of Life Index-Cardiac version (quality of life). The data were collected during the period 1999–2001.

Results. No statistically significant changes over time in coping assessments emerged in the study group, except for fatalistic coping, which diminished over time in men. Women used more evasive coping than men at 4 and 12 months. The perceived efficiency in coping with physical aspects of the heart disease increased. More women than men perceived available support from grandchildren and staff of the church. Health-related quality of life increased in women and men in physical functioning, role-physical, vitality, social functioning, and role-emotional scales.

Moreover, an improvement in the mental health scale was evident in women and a reduction in pain in men. No statistically significant gender differences were found for quality of life at any point in time.

Conclusions. The findings can be used to inform caregivers that optimistic, selfreliant and confrontational coping were the most frequently used by both women and men over the first year after myocardial infarction, and that confrontational coping has been shown to have positive outcomes in the longer term. Nurses should tell women about the importance of seeking prompt treatment and discuss health problems with caregivers and significant others. Care planning should include family members and significant others so that they can support and encourage patients to cope with problems in daily life.