Quality of Life (QoL) and Psychological Distress among Congestive Heart Failure Patients: A Prospective Observational Study from Pakistan

Introduction: Congestive Heart failure (CHF) is a cardiovascular disease harming the physical, social, psychological, emotional, and well-being status of an individual. The interference due to symptoms and signs of heart failure affects QoL (QoL) and leads to depression among the majority of the patients.

Objective: To assess the QoL and depression among CHF patients in Pakistan.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to assess the QoLand depression among CHF patients in Pakistan. The study population included CHF patients greater than 18 years old, both genders visiting public and private Health Care Facilities located in twin cities of Pakistan. QoL was assessed by using SF 36 and KCCQ while HADS (hospital anxiety and depression scale) was used to evaluate the Depression among 382 CHF patients selected using the convenience sampling technique. Data was entered in SPSS version 21 and statistically analyzed.

Results: The results highlighted that use of SF-36 showed the lowest scores for QoL in the domain of role physical (8.82, ± 8.23) followed by the domain of role emotional (10.17, ± 8.6) whereas the highest scores were observed in the domain of mental health (67.26, ± 15.67). On the other hand, the results reported that the use of KCCQ-12 highlighted that the lowest scores for QoL were observed in all the domains of QoL i.e. physical limitations (39.98, ± 31.93), symptoms (73.42, ± 27.94), social limitations (43.21, ± 27.78) and QoL (43.32, ± 23.38).

Conclusion: The current study concluded that CHF patients had poor QoL and severe depression. Several domains of QoL among CHF patients were compromised including physical limitations, emotional limitations, social functioning, and pain. For the general symptoms scale, shortness of breath and limitation in sleeping posture are the most commonly affected leading to compromised quality of life. Interventions must be designed with a focus on patient counseling tailored to the needs for improving QoL and minimizing depression.