Quality of life before and after coronary artery bypass grafting: findings among pre-operative and post-operative patients at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka

Background: Cardiovascular disease is a main cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is a common method of treatment for patients with coronary artery disease, which is known to improve quality of life (QoL). However little is known about how CABG affects QoL in the Sri Lankan setting.

 

 Objective: The purpose of this study therefore was to document the pre-operative and post-operative QoL of the patients undergoing CABG at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL).

 

 Methods: This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted from January-March 2013 in the thoracic unit and cardiology unit of NHSL on two groups of patients matched for age, gender and body mass index: pre-operative patients awaiting CABG (pre-CABG) and post-operative patients who had undergone CABG (post-CABG); with 50 subjects in each group. The health and functioning, socioeconomic, psychological/spiritual and family subscales of QoL were assessed using Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Index – Cardiac IV Version.

 

 Results: The post-CABG group had higher mean scores for overall QoL and health and functioning, psychological/spiritual and family subscales and lower mean scored for social and economic subscale than the pre-CABG group, regardless of age and gender. In the post-CABG group, older patients had significantly higher scores for health and functioning subscale than younger patients (p<0.05).

 

Conclusion: QoL was better in most aspects in the post-CABG group than the pre-CABG group, especially among the older patients.