Influence of chronic cardiovascular disease and hospitalisation due to this disease on quality of life of community-dwelling elderly

The aim of this study was to describe the impact of chronic cardiovascular disease (CVD) and hospitalisation due to this disease on quality-of-life (QOL) in community-dwelling elderly. The study was carried out in the three age- and gender-matched groups of older subjects: 100 elderly without CVD, 100 elderly with CVD and 100 patients actually hospitalised for the cardiologic reasons. The assessment included demographic and social variables, health status, nutritional state, physical activity (PA), physical and cognitive function. QOL was assessed with the Euroqol 5D questionnaire. Presence of CVD per se detracted from QOL only moderately, increasing the subjective perception of pain/discomfort. Hospitalisation was connected with the reduction of the majority of QOL dimensions and the decrease of rating on visual analogue scale (VAS). When taking into account all confounders the presence of CVD did not significantly contribute to overall QOL, while hospitalisation decreased the usual activity dimension of QOL and VAS, but interestingly, improved the perception of well-being in relation to anxiety/depression. Variables that most powerfully detracted from QOL were lower functional status, higher number of medications used, poor nutritional state, low habitual PA and above all, depression. These findings suggest that physical and cognitive function as well as regular PA may affect QOL more in community-dwelling elderly than the presence of CVD or even need of hospitalisation.