title: Fear of exercise and health-related quality of life in patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.
abstract: Several studies have reported improved survival rates thanks to the use of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in the treatment of patients with life-threatening arrhythmia. However, the effects of the ICD on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) of these patients are not clear. The aim of this study is to describe HR-QoL and fear of exercise in ICD patients. Eighty-nine ICD patients from the University Hospital in Groningen, the Netherlands, participated in this study. HR-QoL was measured using the Rand-36 and the Quality of Life After Myocardial Infarction Dutch language version questionnaires. Fear of exercise was measured using the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia, Dutch version and the Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire, Dutch version. Association between outcome variables was analysed by linear regression analyses. Study results show that the HR-QoL of patients with ICDs in our study population is significantly worse than that of normal healthy people. Furthermore, fear of exercise is negatively associated with HR-QoL corrected for sex, age and number of years living with an ICD. After implantation of the ICD, patients with a clear fear of exercise should be identified and interventions should be considered in order to increase their HR-QoL.
authors.affiliation: Institution of Human Movement Science, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Ittersum
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Greef
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: van Gelder
authors.forename: Jenifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Coster
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brügemann
authors.forename: Cees
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: van der Schans
mesh_terms: D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000628:therapy; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable / Q000523:psychology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires