Quality Of Life Of Patients With Chronic Heart Failure And Its Influencing Factors

Objective:①To evaluate the capability of the Chinese version of Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) in Chinese patients of heart failure.②To assess the health related quality of life of heart failure.③To explore some possible influential factors of demographic index and clinic characteristics on the different areas of HRQOL.Methods: We conducted a cross-section survey of 138 participants diagnosised definitely with heart failure (NYHA=Ⅱ～Ⅳ) in three hospitals in Beijing from August,2002 to April,2006. It was performed using a test-retest design with to fill in the Chinese version of Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ), the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form Health Survey (MOS SF-36) and the background questionnaire in the first and second days respectively when patients were in hospital. Questionnaire's capability was measured by its reliability, validity and feasibility. Patient's quality of life was measured by questionnaires, And impact factors of QOL was selected by multiple linear regression.Result:①Internal consistency was achieved for each of the 3 sub-scales with 0.624 to 0.817 of Cronbachα. Reproducibility ranged from 0.555 to 0.680 for sub-scales. Criterion validity was confirmed by comparing MLHFQ with SF-36. Response was 11.43 minutes in average and its responsive rate was almost 100%.②The health related quality of life of heart failure was on the low side, especially in physical area. Female has higher score in quality of life than male. The NYHA classification ofⅢandⅣwere remarkably lower than classificationⅡ.③There were some demographic index, living style, family background and clinic characteristics as factors impacting quality of life of heart failure in different sub-scale and total score. By multiple linear regression analysis, NYHA classification, whether there were cardiopathies in family members and introverted/extroverted character take important effect on patient's QOL. But these three factors just accounted 14.6%～18.9% of the variance in overall score.Conclusions:①The Chinese version of MLHFQ has well reliability, validity and feasibility.②The HF patient's quality of life was on the low side, different background patients have different QOL.③Demographic data on overall HRQOL was mild. NYHA of heart failure patients, introverted/extroverted character and family members with cardiopathies or not show relative important to HRQOL. But these variables can not be the main predictors of patient's quality of life. NYHA was the common predictive value on total score and each dimension. To improve HF patient's QOL, we should go on their heart function, and pay attention on family support and family care, take care of patient with dissocial character.