Relationships between Symptom Experience and Quality of Life in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Baek, Kyung Hwa; Son, Youn Jung

Abstract

PURPOSE: In this study, relationships between symptom experience and quality of life in a cross-sectional sample of patients with Atrial Fibrillation (AF) were investigated.
METHODS
This descriptive study involved a convenience sample of AF patients from S university hospital, C city. One hundred and two AF patients completed psychometric validated measures of AF related symptoms and quality of life. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients with SPSS WIN 14.0 were used for data analysis.
RESULTS
Of 16 atrial arrhythmia-related symptoms, the patients reported 'tiredness' as the most frequent and 'shortness of breath' as the most severe. The level of overall quality of life for patients with AF was 53.92. There were significant differences in symptom frequency according to religion, New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification and left ventricular ejection fraction ; symptom severity according to monthly income and stroke ; quality of life according to age, job, alcohol intake, NYHA class and stroke. Quality of life for these patients was positively correlated with symptom frequency and symptom severity.
CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrated that patients with more frequent and severe symptoms perceive poorer quality of life than patients with less frequent and less severe symptoms. Symptom experience should be assessed early to improve quality of life for patients.