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Effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy on health-related quality of life in older adults with heart failure
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy on health-related quality of life in older adults with heart failure

Karin F Hoth, Justin Nash, Athena Poppas, Kristin E Ellison, Robert H Paul and Ronald A Cohen
Clinical interventions in aging, Vol.3(3), pp.553-560
09/2008
DOI: 10.2147/CIA.S1823
PMCID: PMC2682384
PMID: 18982925
url
https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S1823View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine changes in health-related quality of life among older adults undergoing cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), a pacemaker based intervention for heart failure. Twenty-one patients (mean age = 68; SD = 8) completed measures of cardiovascular health and quality of life prior to and 3-months post-CRT. Following the intervention, patients reported improvements in their perception of their physical functioning (t = 2.8, p < 0.01) and feelings of vitality (t = 2.9, p < 0.01) on the MOS SF-36 Health Survey. Patients improved on objective clinical measures of exercise capacity, cardiac ejection fraction, and ventricular dyssynchrony. Younger patients reported greater improvements in physical functioning and decreases in pain. Higher baseline body mass index was associated with less improvement in physical functioning. Finally, patients with nonischemic heart failure reported greater improvements on multiple subscales of the SF-36 than patients with ischemic heart failure. This preliminary study documented improvements in health-related quality of life following CRT. The findings highlight that specific patient characteristics may be associated with quality of life changes. Future studies will benefit from including quality of life measures that assess multiple health-related domains.
heart failure quality of life Original Research cardiac resynchronization therapy

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