Health-related quality of life of patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators compared with that of pacemaker recipients

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field AIMS: Studies indicate a poorer quality of life (QoL) for implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) patients than for the general population. However, studies comparing the QoL of ICD pa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:EP Europace
Main Authors: Leosdottir, Margret, Sigurdsson, Engilbert, Reimarsdottir, Gudrun, Gottskalksson, Gizur, Torfason, Bjarni, Vigfusdottir, Margret, Eggertsson, Sveinn, Arnar, David O
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2006
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
80 and over
Anxiety
Defibrillators
Implantable
Depression
Female
Health Status
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Pacemaker
Artificial
Quality of Life
Questionnaires
Stress
Psychological
Beck
Iceland
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2336/6532
https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euj052
Description
Summary:To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field AIMS: Studies indicate a poorer quality of life (QoL) for implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) patients than for the general population. However, studies comparing the QoL of ICD patients with that of patients with other implantable cardiac devices are scarce. We hypothesized that ICD patients had a poorer QoL than pacemaker patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: All ICD patients living in Iceland at the beginning of 2002 (44 subjects), and a comparison group of 81 randomly selected patients with pacemakers were invited to participate. The Icelandic Quality of Life Questionnaire (IQL), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were submitted to measure QoL, psychiatric distress, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. The ICD and pacemaker groups did not differ on IQL, BAI, BDI, or GHQ scores. ICD patients were as a group more fearful of death (P = 0.056) and showed more concerns about returning to work (P = 0.072), although these items fell just short of statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Contrary to our expectations, ICD patients had a comparable QoL with pacemaker recipients and were not more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, or general psychiatric distress. These findings are encouraging in view of expanding ICD indications.

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