title: Comparison of health-related quality of life between American and Taiwanese heart failure patients.
abstract: Few investigators have compared health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in heart failure (HF) patients from different countries.The purposes of this study were to compare HRQOL between American (n = 87) and Taiwanese (n = 88) HF patients and to determine factors associated with HRQOL in both groups. In this cross-sectional survey, HRQOL was measured using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire. American patients rated their HRQOL worse than Taiwanese patients did. Sociodemographics, disease severity, and symptom severity were associated with HRQOL, accounting for 42.4% of the variance in HRQOL in Americans and 57.3% in Taiwanese. Symptom severity was the most important predictor of HRQOL in both groups. Interventions targeting symptom severity could improve HF patients' HRQOL.
authors.affiliation: Chang Gung Institute of Technology, No. 133 4F Chang Gung Medical Village, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan. d92426002@ntu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Tsuey-Yuan
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Debra K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.forename: Shiow-Li
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Terry A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Lennie
authors.forename: Misook
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Seongkum
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heo
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D014481:United States