Quality of life

About: Quality of life is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 42912 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1198363 citations. The topic is also known as: life quality.

Measuring the health related quality of life of people with ischaemic heart disease

Abstract: OBJECTIVES—To inform researchers and clinicians about the most appropriate generic and disease specific measures of health related quality of life for use among people with ischaemic heart disease. METHODS—MEDLINE and BIDS were searched for research papers which contained a report of at least one of the three most common generic instruments or at least one of the five disease specific instruments used with ischaemic heart disease patients. Evidence for the validity, reliability, and sensitivity of these instruments was critically appraised. RESULTS—Of the three generic measures—the Nottingham health profile, sickness impact profile, and short form 36 (SF-36)—the SF-36 appears to offer the most reliable, valid, and sensitive assessment of quality of life. However, a few of the SF-36 subscales lack a sufficient degree of sensitivity to detect change in a patient's clinical condition. According to the best available evidence, the quality of life after myocardial infarction questionnaire should be preferred to the Seattle angina questionnaire, the quality of life index cardiac version, the angina pectoris quality of life questionnaire, and the summary index. Overall, research on disease specific measures is sparse compared to the number of studies which have investigated generic measures. CONCLUSIONS—An assessment of the quality of life of people with ischaemic heart disease should comprise a disease specific measure in addition to a generic measure. The SF-36 and the quality of life after myocardial infarction questionnaire (version 2) are the most appropriate currently available generic and disease specific measures of health related quality of life, respectively. Further research into the measurement of health related quality of life of people with ischaemic heart disease is required in order to address the problems (such as lack of sensitivity to detect change) identified by the review. Keywords: quality of life; outcome measurement; ischaemic heart disease

Psychological and pharmacological interventions for depression in patients with coronary artery disease.

Abstract: Background Depression occurs frequently in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and is associated with a poor prognosis. Objectives To determine the effects of psychological and pharmacological interventions for depression in CAD patients with comorbid depression. Search methods CENTRAL, DARE, HTA and EED on The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, ISRCTN Register and CardioSource Registry were searched. Reference lists of included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were examined and primary authors contacted. No language restrictions were applied. Selection criteria RCTs investigating psychological and pharmacological interventions for depression in adults with CAD and comorbid depression were included. Primary outcomes were depression, mortality and cardiac events. Secondary outcomes were healthcare costs and health-related quality of life (QoL). Data collection and analysis Two reviewers independently examined the identified papers for inclusion and extracted data from included studies. Random effects model meta-analyses were performed to compute overall estimates of treatment outcomes. Main results The database search identified 3,253 references. Sixteen trials fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Psychological interventions show a small beneficial effect on depression compared to usual care (range of SMD of depression scores across trials and time frames: -0.81;0.12). Based on one trial per outcome, no beneficial effects on mortality rates, cardiac events, cardiovascular hospitalizations and QoL were found, except for the psychosocial dimension of QoL. Furthermore, no differences on treatment outcomes were found between the varying psychological approaches. The review provides evidence of a small beneficial effect of pharmacological interventions with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) compared to placebo on depression outcomes (pooled SMD of short term depression change scores: -0.24 [-0.38,-0.09]; pooled OR of short term depression remission: 1.80 [1.18,2.74]). Based on one to three trials per outcome, no beneficial effects regarding mortality, cardiac events and QoL were found. Hospitalization rates (pooled OR of three trials: 0.58 [0.39,0.85] and emergency room visits (OR of one trial: 0.58 [0.34,1.00]) were reduced in trials of pharmacological interventions compared to placebo. No evidence of a superior effect of Paroxetine (SSRI) versus Nortriptyline (TCA) regarding depression outcomes was found in one trial. Authors' conclusions Psychological interventions and pharmacological interventions with SSRIs may have a small yet clinically meaningful effect on depression outcomes in CAD patients. No beneficial effects on the reduction of mortality rates and cardiac events were found. Overall, however, the evidence is sparse due to the low number of high quality trials per outcome and the heterogeneity of examined populations and interventions.