Marital satisfaction in patients with and without myocardial infarction

Background: Assessment of sexual relation quality and marital satisfaction is a major part of family evaluation. Unsatisfactory relationship will occur in a long term dysfunctional intimacy and may cause stress and affect the health of the family members, resulting in access of various psychosomatic diseases such as infarction. This study carried out to measure the marital satisfaction in patients with and without myocardial infarction. Methods: It is a case-referent study. Data collected using Enrich questionnaire of couple's marital satisfaction. The case group included patients hospitalized because of first infarction and the referent group included patients hospitalized because of other diseases. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and descriptive and inferential statistics such as t-test, Spearman's rank and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Results: Findings showed that in general there is no significant difference in marital satisfaction between patients with or without myocardial infarction (p = 0.07). However, there was a significant difference between mean scores of the two groups on the questions related to the satisfaction in compatibility about children (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The results showed that satisfaction regarding compatibility about children is significantly different between the two groups. Other researches also found that marital satisfaction decreases during the period of bringing up children. It seems necessary to educate parents to be compatible about their children, because it affects their marital satisfaction.