The religious perspective of suffering in heart attack : from 'mystery' to the 'Mystery'

Abstract

The perceived suffering of individuals may be different during the acute and chronic phases of a heart attack. Existing research on clients with a heart attack has been mainly conducted across the immediate acute phase and the first three to twelve months of recovery. This research has generated inconsistent findings on clients’ experiences of suffering, which might have been due to methodological factors such as the use of cross-sectional research design, and the sole collection of quantitative data which carries limitations in exploring the subjective variables of the religious and/or spiritual dimensions of suffering in illness. These research gaps were addressed by this longitudinal descriptive exploratory study which has collected in-depth data across the first five years of recovery from the onset of the heart attack. Therefore, in order to identify possible fluctuations across time, and provide in-depth data about the perceived religious perspective of suffering, this longitudinal study aims to explore the religious perspective of the mystery of suffering in clients with a first heart attack, both in the immediate acute phase and across the first five years of recovery.