Health related quality of life in hypertensive patients in a tertiary care teaching hospital.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QOL) evaluation has emerged as an important outcome measure for chronic diseases like hypertension. AIMS: To determine QOL in patients suffering from hypertension using MINICHAL and WHOQOL-BREF tools. METHODS AND MATERIAL: The study was carried out for eight weeks in medicine outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. All patients diagnosed with essential hypertension and on drug therapy for at least one month were included. Their socio-demographic and clinical data were noted. Patients were interviewed for QOL using two questionnaires - WHOQOL-BREF and MINICHAL scale. RESULTS: Total 269 patients had mean age and duration of hypertension 58.25 ± 10.35 and 7.65 ± 8.00 years respectively. Age, duration of illness, number of symptoms, systolic blood pressure and number of drugs prescribed showed statistically significant (P < 0.05) negative correlation with WHOQOL-BREF score while number of symptoms, systolic blood pressure and duration of illness showed statistically significant positive correlation with MINICHAL scale (P < 0.05). MINICHAL scale and WHOQOL-BREF were significantly correlated with each other (P < 0.01). Women had significantly poorer QOL compared to men. CONCLUSIONS: Age, female gender, duration, number of symptoms, systolic blood pressure and number of medications may be important predictors of QOL in hypertensive patients.