Abstract
Background: Starting in infancy, patients with congenital heart disease （CHD） encounter specific difficulties that they must work to overcome as they age. This study was conducted in order to identify the structure of resilience related to illness experiences, and development of an assessment tool to measure resilience related to illness experiences.
Methods: A questionnaire focusing on resilience was distributed to 500 individuals diagnosed with CHD. In total, 178 responses were obtained. The questionnaire was developed based on an interview with a focus group conducted in a prior study. For statistical interpretation and analyses of questionnaire data, factor analysis and Mann-Whitney U-tests and other tests were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics software （version 22）.
Results: Completed questionnaires were received from 178 individuals diagnosed with CHD （95 males and 83 females） aged between 10 and 32 years （mean age 17.2± 5.8 years）. Factor analysis identified the following three factors: a） I can understand my illness; b） I exhibit positive behavior; c） I do not engage in strenuous physical activity. Cronbach’s α values for the three factors ranged from 0.706 to 0.791. With differences or correlation in resilience related to illness experiences due to back-ground, in a）, the score had a weak association with age, in b）, the serious group had a low score and in c）, there were no differences in background.
Conclusions: The results of this study can be summarized as follows: 1） It is important that an understanding of illness is promoted amongst children in the early developmental stage; 2） it is important that positive behavior and thinking is promoted amongst the serious group; and 3） in addition to resilience, “I do not engage in strenuous physical activity” is a characteristic trait for a person with CHD.
