Health-related quality of life and sense of coherence among elderly patients with severe chronic heart failure in comparison with healthy controls.
OBJECTIVE
To describe health-related quality of life (QoL) and sense of coherence (SOC) in a group of elderly people with moderate to severe chronic heart failure and to make comparisons with a healthy sex- and age-matched control group.


METHODS
Patients (n = 94), with a mean age of 81 years, hospitalized for chronic heart failure with New York Heart Association functional classification III to IV were age- and sex-matched to a healthy control group. The instruments used were the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and SOC.


RESULTS
The patients had lower levels of health-related QoL scores (SF-36) but high and similar scores of SOC compared with the controls. There were, however, significant positive correlations between the SOC scores and the emotional dimensions in the SF-36 instrument.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings from this study indicate that old age and severe chronic heart failure were associated with limited functional abilities and impaired health-related QoL but also with internal resources such as SOC.
Ekman
Inger
I
Faculty of Health and Caring Sciences, Institute of Nursing, Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University, Billerudsgatan 1, S-416 75 Göteborg, Sweden.
Fagerberg
Björn
B
Lundman
Berit
B
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003221:Confusion / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006306:Health Surveys; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011336:Probability; D011788:Quality of Life; D012016:Reference Values; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology