Poor health-related quality of life of patients with indication for chronic cardiac pacemaker therapy.
BACKGROUND
Studies on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients awaiting pacemaker (PM) implantation are scarce, or executed in specific patient subgroups (regarding age or specific cardiac rhythm disorders). The purpose of this study was to systematically assess the HRQoL in a large unselected cohort of patients with a conventional indication for PM therapy.


METHODS
Pre-PM implantation HRQoL (measured with the SF-36 questionnaire, completed at hospital admission) of 818 consecutive Dutch patients included in the FOLLOWPACE study was compared with the HRQoL in a sample of the general Dutch population, and with several cohorts of patients with other conditions. Linear regression analysis was performed to analyze determinants of this HRQoL.


RESULTS
Almost all SF-36 subscale scores were substantially and significantly lower in the PM patients compared to the general population, with P-values < 0.001 in all SF-36 subscales except for "pain" and "general health perception." In the PM patients, presence of comorbidities, gender, and age were significantly associated with the overall physical component summary score (mean 38.8 +/- 27 standard deviation) whereas the overall mental component summary score (46.8 +/- 27.0) was associated with gender and age.


CONCLUSIONS
The HRQoL of patients before first PM implantation is significantly lower than that of a general population and also various other patient populations. Physicians should be aware of this unfavorable condition and keep the time interval between the diagnosis of a cardiac rhythm disorder requiring PM implantation and the implantation procedure as short as possible.
van Eck
J W Martijn
JW
Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands. j.w.m.vaneck-2@umcutrecht.nl
van Hemel
Norbert M
NM
Kelder
Johannes C
JC
van den Bos
Arjan A
AA
Taks
William
W
Grobbee
Diederick E
DE
Moons
Karel G M
KG
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D018579:Patient Selection; D011379:Prognosis; D011788:Quality of Life; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome