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).