Health related quality of life in hypertensive patients in a tertiary care teaching hospital.

BACKGROUND

Quality of life (QOL) evaluation has emerged as an important outcome measure for chronic diseases like hypertension.

AIMS: To determine QOL in patients suffering from hypertension using MINICHAL and WHOQOL-BREF tools.

METHODS AND MATERIAL: The study was carried out for eight weeks in medicine outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. All patients diagnosed with essential hypertension and on drug therapy for at least one month were included. Their socio-demographic and clinical data were noted. Patients were interviewed for QOL using two questionnaires - WHOQOL-BREF and MINICHAL scale.

RESULTS

Total 269 patients had mean age and duration of hypertension 58.25 ± 10.35 and 7.65 ± 8.00 years respectively. Age, duration of illness, number of symptoms, systolic blood pressure and number of drugs prescribed showed statistically significant (P < 0.05) negative correlation with WHOQOL-BREF score while number of symptoms, systolic blood pressure and duration of illness showed statistically significant positive correlation with MINICHAL scale (P < 0.05). MINICHAL scale and WHOQOL-BREF were significantly correlated with each other (P < 0.01). Women had significantly poorer QOL compared to men.

CONCLUSIONS

Age, female gender, duration, number of symptoms, systolic blood pressure and number of medications may be important predictors of QOL in hypertensive patients.