Quality of life and symptoms of depression in advanced heart failure patients and their partners

Abstract

2 Purpose of reviewTo provide an overview of factors related to quality of life and symptoms of depression in heart failure patients and their partners. Furthermore, to give an overview of interventions that can be effective in improving their quality of life and decrease depressive symptoms. Recent findingsQuality of life of patients with heart failure and their partners is poor compared to their age-matched peers from the general population and also compared to patients suffering from other chronic diseases. Furthermore, a considerable amount of heart failure patients is depressed. Depressive symptoms of patients and of their partners seemed to be interrelated, making interventions complicated but needed.Although the number of studies that specifically target improvement of quality of life and depression in heart failure patients and their partners is still small, several interventions are known to improve quality of life and these could be implemented in daily care. SummaryThis review considers demographic and clinical factor that are related to quality of life and depressive symptoms and addresses interventions that can contribute to improvement of quality of life of heart failure patients and their partners and decrease depressive symptoms.Education on self-care management and physical exercise are important to include in a disease management program. A multidisciplinary care approach including optimizing medical therapy and optimal symptom management is advised, focusing both on the patient and the caregiver. Treatment and care should not only focus on heart failure, but also address the consequences of co-morbidities and consequences of symptoms and therapies.

The patient perspective: Quality of life in advanced heart failure with frequent hospitalisations

“…It is characterised by a debilitating late course, with increasingly frequent hospitalisations and considerable morbidity besides the obvious mortality [2]. Heart failure affects quality of life (QoL) more profoundly than many other chronic diseases [3]. Even though QoL is a major concern, it appears that clinical management as well as research efforts do not focus sufficiently on this aspect.…”

Dampak Karakteristik Sosiodemografi dan Tingkat Kepatuhan Terapi Antihipertensi Terhadap HRQoL Pasien Gagal Jantung Kongestif

“…HRQoL pada pasien gagal jantung kongestif wanita dikarenakan secara fisik, mental wanita lebih lemah dibandingkan pasien gagal jantung kongestif laki-laki, serta wanita memiliki tingkat depresi yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan laki-laki [17].…”

Participation in heart failure home-care : Patients’ and partners’ perspectives

“…Patients with HF often report poor HRQoL (Juenger et al 2002, Falk et al 2013, often poorer than in other chronic conditions (Jaarsma et al 2010b). Patients with HF have also reported poorer HRQoL compared to an agematched group of elderly people , Lesman-Leegte et al 2009) and have consistently reported significantly lower in the area of physical health (Lesman-Leegte et al 2009).…”

“…Patients with HF have also reported poorer HRQoL compared to an agematched group of elderly people , Lesman-Leegte et al 2009) and have consistently reported significantly lower in the area of physical health (Lesman-Leegte et al 2009). Heart failure together with co-morbidity has an impact on HRQoL (Franzen-Årestedt et al 2007), where progressing disease severity and increasing levels of co-morbidity are associated with poorer quality of life in patients with HF (Jaarsma et al 2010b). Co-morbidities also influence the patient's self-care, where the presence of more than one illness has been shown to make it more complicated for the patients to manage their illness (Jeon et al 2010).…”

“…Symptom burden, the HF condition and treatment, and the condition's impact on daily life contribute to a decreased quality of life (Jaarsma et al 2010b). …”