OBJECTIVE: To describe the quality of life (QOL) of candidates for and recipients of heart transplants over a five-year period. DESIGN: Descriptive, longitudinal. SETTING: Canadian university-affiliated tertiary care medical centre. PATIENTS: Sixty-five candidates for heart transplantation; after one year, six candidates were still awaiting transplantation; 42 patients received transplants and were included in the study six months post-transplant. OUTCOME MEASURES: Three measures of QOL were used: the Index of Well-Being, Cantril's Self-Anchoring Striving Scale and the "time-trade-off technique'. INTERVENTION: Data were collected before transplantation, six months post-transplantation, one year post-transplantation and annually for the next four years; for individuals who did not receive transplants, data were collected six months and one year after the first interview. MAIN RESULTS: QOL scores were considerably higher after than before transplantation, and compared favourably with norms for the general population. For 11 individuals who did not receive transplants, QOL remained low. QOL for heart transplant recipients was remarkably stable over the five-year study period. The major predictors of QOL for candidates awaiting transplantation were health status, outlook and ability to work. After transplantation, the major predictors of QOL were outlook, health status and employment status. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence to suggest that QOL improves after heart transplantation, and that improvement is relatively stable over time. Further work is needed to identify the factors that could result in improvements in QOL.
OBJECTIVE: To describe the quality of life (QOL) of candidates for and recipients of heart transplants over a five-year period. DESIGN: Descriptive, longitudinal. SETTING: Canadian university-affiliated tertiary care medical centre. PATIENTS: Sixty-five candidates for heart transplantation; after one year, six candidates were still awaiting transplantation; 42 patients received transplants and were included in the study six months post-transplant. OUTCOME MEASURES: Three measures of QOL were used: the Index of Well-Being, Cantril's Self-Anchoring Striving Scale and the "time-trade-off technique'. INTERVENTION: Data were collected before transplantation, six months post-transplantation, one year post-transplantation and annually for the next four years; for individuals who did not receive transplants, data were collected six months and one year after the first interview. MAIN RESULTS: QOL scores were considerably higher after than before transplantation, and compared favourably with norms for the general population. For 11 individuals who did not receive transplants, QOL remained low. QOL for heart transplant recipients was remarkably stable over the five-year study period. The major predictors of QOL for candidates awaiting transplantation were health status, outlook and ability to work. After transplantation, the major predictors of QOL were outlook, health status and employment status. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence to suggest that QOL improves after heart transplantation, and that improvement is relatively stable over time. Further work is needed to identify the factors that could result in improvements in QOL.
Authors: Kathryn E Flynn; Mary Amanda Dew; Li Lin; Maria Fawzy; Felicia L Graham; Elizabeth A Hahn; Ron D Hays; Robert L Kormos; Honghu Liu; Mary McNulty; Kevin P Weinfurt Journal: Qual Life Res Date: 2015-06-03 Impact factor: 4.147
Authors: Kathleen L Grady; David C Naftel; Jon Kobashigawa; Julie Chait; James B Young; Dave Pelegrin; Jennifer Czerr; Alain Heroux; Robert Higgins; Bruce Rybarczyk; Mary McLeod; Connie White-Williams; James K Kirklin Journal: J Heart Lung Transplant Date: 2007-03-26 Impact factor: 10.247