Key result
Post-surgery cardiac symptoms are linked to lower patient morale, rather than morale worsening symptoms.
Why the study?
Understanding how different components of quality of life relate to each other is critical for applying quality of life theory and measurement in clinical situations.
Observational (n=469)
In cardiac surgery patients, physical symptoms appear to drive lower morale rather than low morale exacerbating physical symptoms, suggesting interventions should target symptom relief to improve quality of life.
Five QoL factors identified in post-CV surgery patients; hypothesis-generating and leaves open whether these dimensions inform targeted care or require validation.
Of critical importance in the applications of quality of life theory and measurement to clinical situations is the need to know how the different components of quality of life relate to each other and what these relationships mean. To answer this question, the present study reanalyzes data collected 6 months after surgery on 469 patients with cardiovascular problems. The data were factor analyzed and five factors were extracted, namely, Symptoms of Illness, Neurological Dysfunction, Interpersonal Relationships, Morale, and Socioeconomic Status. Because the factor scores derived from these five factors intercorrelated, we were able to hypothesize causal models suggesting how the factors might affect each other. Two competing models were tested against the data using LISREL. A crucial difference between the two models was that in one, Symptoms lowered Morale whereas in the other, low Morale aggravated Symptoms, i.e., a psychosomatic effect. The first model fitted the data very well in contrast to the second model which did not fit the data at all. The authors consider the implications of the first model for improving quality of life in cardiac patients.
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Romney et al. (1992) conducted an observational in Cardiovascular problems (n=469). Symptoms of illness was evaluated on Model fit for causal relationship between symptoms and morale. A causal model where symptoms of illness lowered morale fitted the data very well for cardiac patients 6 months post-surgery, whereas a model where low morale aggravated symptoms did not fit at all.
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