Comfort and Quality of Life of Older Cardiac Patients: A Cross-sectional Study

Objective: A demographic transformation in favor of older people and the incidence of cardiovascular diseases requires considering the concepts of comfort and quality of life in older cardiac patients in all care settings. Thus, these concepts, closely related to the definition of health, conduce determination of the health care needs of older cardiac patients and the development of supportive approaches. The aims of the study were to determine the comfort and quality of life, examine the relationship between them, and to identify factors that affect the comfort and quality of life in older cardiac patients.Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in the inpatient cardiology clinic of a university hospital in Bolu. Overall, 209 patients, who met the inclusion criteria, consisted of the sample. The general comfort questionnaire and quality of life index cardiac version-IV were used to collect data. Further analyzes were carried out with multivariate analysis of variance.Results: Comfort and quality of life scores were 16.18 +/- 0.82 and 2.97 +/- 0.39, respectively. Physical, psycho-spiritual, environmental, and sociocultural comfort closely correlated with quality of life (p<0.05). Multivariate analysis of variance showed that living place, perception of income status, frequency of hospitalization, dietary adherence, routine health checkup, and dizziness were common covariates of comfort and quality of life (p<0.05).Conclusion: There was a correlation between all dimensions of comfort and quality of life. By improving the variables that affect comfort and quality of life together, patients' comfort can be provided and their quality of life can be increased.