Time Invariant Trackers of Health Quality-of-Life (Short Form 36) in Eight Year Follow Up After Coronary Heart Surgery

Lindsay, G. M.^1*, Tayyib, N. A.¹, Khedr, S.¹, Tolmie, E. P.², Rideout, A. S.³ & Belcher, P. R.⁴

¹College of Nursing Studies, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
²Department of Nursing Studies, University of Glasgow, UK
³Dumfries and Galloway Health Board, UK
⁴Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Glasgow, UK

Dr. Lindsay, G. M., College of Nursing Studies, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: Coronary Heart Disease; Short Form 36; Principal Component Analysis; Self-Rated Cardiac Symptoms; Model Trackers of Health Quality-of-Life

Abstract

Background
The widespread use of the Short Form (SF36) questionnaire and its applicability and generalization to disparate populations led us to use this approach to examine health quality-of-life for a population who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
Method
SF36 data and self-rated severities of angina and dyspnoea symptoms measured on a likert rating scale were collected from 208 patients prior to surgery and from consenting survivors at one-year and eight-years follow-ups. Principal components analysis applied to raw SF36 domain scores was used to identify and validate two time-invariant trackers of health quality-of-life. Paired t-tests and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to investigate changes in these trackers across time and their interactions with self reported severities of cardiac symptoms.

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