Determining Quality of Life in Older and Younger Women With Congestive Heart Failure and Myocardial Infarction.

The purpose of this study was to compare quality of life (QOL) between older and younger women diagnosed with congestive heart failure (CHF) or myocardial infarction (MI) and to ascertain if QOL varied with age. Using the Medical Outcomes Survey (MOS-SF-36) we examined 131 women: 69 diagnosed with CHF and 62 with MI. Older women (age equals 65 years) with CHF had a higher mean for general health, whereas younger women (age equals 64 years) had higher mean scores for role physical, vitality, role emotion, and social functioning. Older women with MI had higher mean scores on role emotion, mental health, and social functioning. The younger MI women had higher mean scores on physical functioning, and role physical. Aspects of QOL may vary in subsets of women depending on age and cardiac diagnosis. This suggests the need for age appropriate intervention in women with MI and CHF.