Fear of graft rejection 1-5 years after lung transplantation-A nationwide cohort study.

AIM:To explore the perceived threat of the risk of graft rejection and its relationship to psychological general well-being and self-efficacy 1-5 years after lung transplantation. DESIGN:A nationwide, cross-sectional cohort study as a part of the Self-management after thoracic transplantation study. METHODS:A total of 117 lung transplant recipients due for their yearly follow-up one (N = 35), two (N = 28), three (N = 23), four (N = 20) and 5 years (N = 11) after lung transplantation were included. We used three instruments; the Perceived Threat of the Risk of Graft Rejection, the Psychological General Well-being and Self-efficacy in chronic illness. RESULTS:The lung recipients reported an overall low perceived threat of the risk of graft rejection with no gender differences. Intrusive anxiety explained 24.7% of the variance in the PGWB-sum (p ≤ 0.001) and makes a statistically significant (β = -497; p ≤ 0.001) unique contribution to the overall psychological general well-being (95%CI 3.004-1.515).