Physical Functioning, Mental Health, and Quality of Life in Different Congenital Heart Defects: Comparative Analysis in 3538 Patients From 15 Countries

APPROACH-IS consortium and the International Society for Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ISACHD)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: We compared physical functioning, mental health, and quality of life (QoL) of patients with different subtypes of congenital heart disease (CHD) in a large international sample and investigated the role of functional class in explaining the variance in outcomes across heart defects. Methods: In the cross-sectional Assessment of Patterns of Patient-Reported Outcome in Adults with Congenital Heart Disease-International Study (APPROACH-IS), we enrolled 4028 adult patients with CHD from 15 countries. Diagnostic groups with at least 50 patients were included in these analyses, yielding a sample of 3538 patients (median age: 32 years; 52% women). Physical functioning, mental health, and QoL were measured with the SF-12 health status survey, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), linear analog scale (LAS) and Satisfaction with Life Scale, respectively. Functional class was assessed using the patient-reported New York Heart Association (NYHA) class. Multivariable general linear mixed models were applied to assess the relationship between the type of CHD and patient-reported outcomes, adjusted for patient characteristics, and with country as random effect. Results: Patients with coarctation of the aorta and those with isolated aortic valve disease reported the best physical functioning, mental health, and QoL. Patients with cyanotic heart disease or Eisenmenger syndrome had worst outcomes. The differences were statistically significant, above and beyond other patient characteristics. However, the explained variances were small (0.6% to 4.1%) and decreased further when functional status was added to the models (0.4% to 0.9%). Conclusions: Some types of CHD predict worse patient-reported outcomes. However, it appears that it is the functional status associated with the heart defect rather than the heart defect itself that shapes the outcomes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)215-223
Number of pages9
JournalCanadian Journal of Cardiology
Volume37
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Physical Functioning, Mental Health, and Quality of Life in Different Congenital Heart Defects: Comparative Analysis in 3538 Patients From 15 Countries'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this