Quality of life of patients in the postoperative cardiac surgery phase

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are directly related to the growing number of patients that need to undergo a cardiac surgery procedure. These interventions have a direct effect on the physical, social and emotional well-being of a patient and also on his/her productivity, not to mention that they cause conditions and require drastic changes in lifestyle, which can jeopardize the patients' quality of life. Considering that, the target of this study was to analyze the quality of life of the patients in ambulatory treatment in a public institution of the countryside of the Brazilian state of São Paulo. Thirty-eight patients were approached. Their ages, on average, were 59.2 years old and they had just been through a cardiac surgery. The WHOQOL-Bref (the international cross-culturally comparable quality of life assessment instrument created by the World Health Organization) and the socio-demographic survey were answered by each patient. The majority of the patients was male (63,2%), married (76,3%), didn't finish Middle School (63,2%) and received a financial benefit from the government (50%). The WHOQOL-Bref scores were: physical issue (62,9), psychological issue (76,1), social issue (74,3), environmental issue (69,2), general evaluation of quality of life (75,0) and satisfaction with his/her health (73,7). Expressive difference was observed between the practice of physical activities and the physical and social issues. There was also significant correlation between the physical and age issues. In the psychological issue, there was a significant difference observed between genders; and in the environmental issue, the higher means were among the non-smoking people. It was possible to conclude that the patients had a positive perception of his/her quality when compared to other studies.