Summary:
INTRODUCTION : Patients with heart failure experience many and various problems
that affect their quality of life and possibly trigger the onset of anxiety and
depression. PURPOSE of this study was to explore the impact of anxiety and
depression on quality of life in patients with heart failure (HF). MATERIAL AND
METHODS The sample of the study consisted of 127 patients with heart failure.
Data was collected by the patients' completion of a questionnaire specifically
designed for the needs of research which consisted of: a) socio-demographic,
clinical and other characteristics of the sample, b) the scale HADs and c) the
scale MINNESOTA. Statistical analysis was performed with the statistical
package SPSS 20 and the statistical methods were Kruskal-Wallis,Man-Whitney, X2
and multiple linear regression. RESULTS The results of this study showed that
49.6% of patients experienced a high level of anxiety and 11.8% high level of
depression. The mean ± standard deviation of the total score of the scale
Minnesota was 51 ± 13 and the mean ± standard deviation of the physical and
mental condition was 22,6 ± 5,3 and 9,2 ± 4,3 respectively. Multiple linear
regression showed that patients with high levels of stress had higher total
score of the scale Minnesota (worst quality of life) than patients with low /
moderate levels of anxiety (β- coefficient: 11,794, p <0,001), but this
relationship disappeared after control for potential confounders (β-
coefficient: 4,188, p = 0,343). Moreover, it was found that patients with
middle and high level of depression had higher scores (worse quality of life)
compared with patients with low levels of depression (beta coefficient: 15,835
and 7,911, respectively, p <0,001) and this relationship remained after
controlling for potential confounders (β- coefficient: 11.202 and 15.763,
respectively, p <0,001). CONCLUSIONS The present study showed that depression
influenced quality of life of heart failure patients. Assessment and early
recognition of depression is important to improve quality of life.
Keywords:
Anxiety, Depression, Heart failure, Quality of life
