Factors Associated With Health-Related Quality of Life in Elderly Korean Patients With Heart Failure

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is a debilitating chronic disease with incidence and prevalence increasing worldwide. People with HF experience deteriorating functional status, severe fatigue, dyspnea, and repeated hospital admissions, which negatively affect health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Therefore, 1 of the primary goals of HF management is to improve HRQoL. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship among sociodemographics, clinical factors, functional status, depression, and HRQoL in elderly Korean patients with HF. METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional study design was used. We enrolled 134 HF patients from outpatient cardiology clinics at an academic-affiliated hospital and a tertiary care academic referral medical center in Cheonan, South Korea. We obtained sociodemographic and psychosocial variables from face-to-face interviews and obtained clinical variables from medical record reviews. We used the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire to measure HRQoL. RESULTS: Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis and after controlling for sociodemographic and clinical factors, we determined that HRQoL was independently influenced by depression (β = .443, P < .001), New York Heart Association classification (β = .148, P < .05), and functional status (β = -.403, P < .001). Depression and functional status explained about 26% of the variance in HRQoL. CONCLUSIONS: Depression and functional status were significantly associated with HRQoL in elderly patients with HF. Our findings emphasize the need for careful clinical screening of both depression and functional status in older patients with HF. More research needs to be conducted to develop effective intervention strategies to improve HRQoL and, in turn, HF outcomes.