The Factors associated with improving of quality of life in psychological rehabilitation and usual care groups of patients after cardiac surgery

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the factors to predict the improvement of quality of life (QOL) in intervention (IG) and control usual care (CG) groups patients after cardiac surgery (CS). Methods: The cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) impact was analyzed in IG (n =43) and in CG (n =46). QOL was measured using SF-36 scales, Type-A behaviour by JAS-SF, Type-D personality by DS-14, alexithymia by TAS-20, hostility by SCL-90R. Thirteen sociodemographic and medical factors were chosen from medical records. The findings were collected at 2 and 12 months after CS. CBT consisted of 18 therapy sessions over 10 months. Results: After controlling for baseline imbalance (ANCOVA) findings have demonstrated improvement in IC according to Physical Functioning (F=5.226, p=0.025), General Mental Health (F=5.978, p=0.017), and Mental Component of SF-36 (F=6.050, p=0.016). The analysis of sociodemographic/medical/personalities relations with change scores of each SF-36 scales have shown that Type-A behaviour was related to the better changes in both groups according to Role Limitation Due to Emotional Problems and Bodily Pain scales (p b 0.05). There were no found other associations in IG. Meanwhile six factors (age, gender, type of cardiac surgery, other diseases, life events, D-type personality) were associated with various SF-36 scales in CG (p b 0.05). Conclusions: Sociodemographic and medical factors have no impact on the change scores of quality of life in psychological rehabilitation group, but they impact the improvement in usual care group. Type-A behaviour is related with better changes in both groups.