Relation between Clinical and Therapeutic variables and Quality of Life in Palestinian Hypertensive Patients

Supervisor:

Dr. Samah Al-Jabi

Dr. Sa'ed Zyoud

Abstract :

Background:The ability to identify indicators of poor health-related quality of life HRQoL is very important for both improving clinical care and making interventions to improve treatment outcome.

Objectives:In this study we aimed to assess HRQoL among hypertensive Palestinian patients and to determine the socio-demographic and therapeutic characteristics associated with poor HRQoL.

Methods:A cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken with a cohort of  hypertensive patients attending the outpatients’ clinics at the Al-Makhfyah primary health care clinic and from Alwatani hospital, Nablus - Palestine. The EuroQoL EQ-5D scale was used for the assessment of HRQoL. Descriptive statistics were used to describe socio-demographic and disease-related characteristics of the patients. HRQoL was scored using values adapted from the United Kingdom general population survey. All analysis were performed using SPSS version 15.0.

Results: The study sample was 410 patients, of these 213 (52%) were female. The mean age of the study sample was 58.38 ± 1.065 years, 192 patients were obese, 81.2% of the patients were nonsmokers, and the majority of the patients (86.8%) were on combination antihypertensive therapy. HRQoL was good, the mean of the EQ-5D index was 0.80 ± 0.16 and the mean of the EQ-5D visual analogue scale (EQ- VAS) was 74.1 ± 15.6. A significant difference in EQ-5D index value was found between patients when grouped according to age, occupation, marital status, educational level, income, duration of the disease, total number of chronic diseases and total number of medications (Kruskal-Wallis p < 0 .05) as well as gender and therapy type (Mann-Whitney p < 0.05). 

Conclusion: Palestinian hypertensive patients have good quality of life (QoL). Socio-demographic, co-morbid diseases and therapeutic regimen have a great impact on QoL. The study findings could be helpful in clinical practice, mainly in the early treatment of hypertensive patients, at a point to improve HRQoL.