Clinical InvestigationEducational Level and the Quality of Life of Heart Failure Patients: A Longitudinal Study
Section snippets
Methods
We performed secondary analyses using data from the Coordinating study evaluating Outcomes of Advising and Counselling in Heart failure (COACH). COACH is a multicenter study involving 17 hospitals in the Netherlands aimed at studying the effect of education and counseling in HF patients.13, 14 For the present research, we focused on educational disparities.
Results
The sample included 62% men, a small number (12%) of high-educated patients and the average age was 69 years (Table 1). Mean LVEF was 33%, and the average number of other chronic conditions was 1.4. The high-educated patients were younger (mean age 66 ± 13), more often male (81%), and had fewer comorbid conditions (mean 1.1 ± 1.1), especially when compared with the very low-educated patients. About 70% of the participants in the whole group, as well as in each educational group, have received
Discussion
This study examined whether cross-sectional and longitudinal differences in QoL of HF patients were attributable to educational level, independently of other clinical and sociodemographic factors. We found better QoL for high-educated patients in physical and functional domains, specifically in physical functioning, energy/fatigue, social functioning, and limitations in role functioning related to emotional problems.
The greatest inequalities were found when the high-educated patients were
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Tim Fawcett for his comments on the text. We would like to thank the patients who participated in the study.
Disclosures
None.
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The COACH study is supported by a program grant of the Netherlands Heart Foundation [2000Z003].
See page 53 for disclosure information.