0 - Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Biopsychosocial Effects Among Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Patients 57
and economic backgrounds. All of the patients had undergone their first CABG surgery
and were capable of giving informed consent and did not suffer major complications. The
actual sample collected was 77% male, 90% Caucasian, 65% Married and all from
middle income families. This sample is hardly representative of ethnic diversity, women,
lower income residents, and general CABG patients across populations.
In addition, this sample may have been medically clean. In other words, it is
questionable whether or not these CABG patients were experiencing reported normal
levels of pain or depression that are indicative of this population, let alone significant
levels of these constructs. Typically pain and depression are comorbid factors, yet this
population did not report these findings.
Recommendation for Future Research
The current limitations may be used as a guide for future research
recommendations. Future studies should focus on resolving problems with low
reliability, validity, generalizability, and participant selection bias. One way to
accomplish this may be to reduce the length of the actual questionnaires or to utilize short
forms that may have compromised participants' willingness to volunteer and concentrate.
Thus future studies should attempt to make use of shorter measures to assess the
constructs.
In addition, future studies should attempt to recruit a larger sample size. One way
to accomplish this goal effectively would be to pilot a study examining various data
collection procedures such as mail surveys, visiting patients in the hospital post-recovery,
or even sending out interest letters. During future data collection a manual describing all
procedures should be used to reduce procedural errors while attempting to admit