Original article Quality of life and emotional functioning in selected cardiovascular diseases

Abstract

Background: Numerous psychosomatic diseases, especially cardiovascular, are regarded as diseases of modern civilisation. Psychological factors play a dominant role in these diseases. Among these factors we can distinguish several different types of emotional functioning and subjective estimation of patients’ quality of life (QoL).
Aim: To assess the level of QoL and types of emotional functioning among patients suffering from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and hypertension.
Methods: A group of 160 male patients was subjected to examinations. They were divided into two groups: IHD with hypertension (120 patients) and a control group (40 healthy patients). In the examination the Emotional Control Questionnaire by Brzeziński (KKE) was applied together with Life Quality Test SF-36 and with a personal questionnaire.
Results: Approximately 25% of patients had low QoL. The mean QoL was lower than in healthy subjects (p < 0.05). Also parameters of emotional functioning were significantly lower in patients than in controls (p < 0.05). Significant correlations were found between level of QoL and several types of emotional functioning (p < 0.05, p < 0.01 and p < 0.001).
Conclusions: 1. Quality of life level among psychosomatic patients is significantly lower than in healthy individuals. 2. Quality of life level is closely related to emotional functioning of the studied individuals. 3. Among psychosomatic patients lower level of QoL is accompanied by higher intensity of negative emotional functioning schemes.