Purpose/Objectives:

The purpose of the study was to describe the relationship between anger, spirituality, and subjective and objective indices of heart disease risk among a convenience sample of nontraditional college students at a small private university in South Texas. Nontraditional college students are defined as slightly older commuter students who balance family, work, and school schedules.

Research Hypothesis/Question(s):

(1) What are the risk factors, level of anger, and spirituality of nontraditional college students participating in a wellness course at a small private south Texas university? (2) What are the self-assessed risk factors among nontraditional college students participating in a wellness course at a small private south Texas university?

Design:

The study used a descriptive correlational design.

Methods:

The sample consisted of 19 mostly single female students with a mean age of 30 years (range, 21-64 years). Instruments included Self-assessment of Health Risk Profile, State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (6 scales and 5 subscales), Anger Expression Index, and Spiritual Well-being Index.

Findings:

Over half were minority. Sixty-nine percent were overweight; 60% were prehypertensive; 26% had a total cholesterol greater than 200. Over two-thirds stated they weighed more than they should. Over half reported a family history of high blood pressure; 37% reported a family history of diabetes; 42% smoked. Fifteen percent of the sample had anger scores suggesting a need for referral. Over half had scores in the moderate range for spiritual well-being. Scores on the existential well-being subscale were negatively correlated with overall anger expression.

Conclusions:

These findings suggest the need for targeted lifestyle and anger management interventions among this population.

Implications for Practice:

Future studies with larger samples are needed to determine whether spirituality mediates anger, and how anger is related to cardiac risk among this group.

Section Description

The journal is proud to share the student abstracts accepted for poster presentation at the 2010 National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists Conference. These abstracts are submitted under a separate, later deadline and therefore did not appear in the journal with the general abstracts. Congratulations to these CNS students and their faculty mentors.