Quality of life in chronic cardiovascular illness

Aspects of outcome that require assessment in chronic cardiovascular illness include the total consequences of both the illness and its management. Quality of life in the medical care context, addresses the resultant comfort, sense of well-being and life satisfaction; the maintenance of reasonable physical, emotional, and intellective function; and the ability to participate in valued activities in the family, workplace, and community. Factors reinforcing the validity of considering quality of life attributes relate to the contemporary marked increase in the prevalence of chronic cardiovascular illness. In chronic illness, the therapies administered are not curative but are rather designed to limit the disabling consequences of the disease; the perceptions of patients about their resultant health status thus have clinical relevance. Next is that patients, as enlightened consumers, increasingly seek information about the options available to them for treatments for chronic cardiovascular disease, with their queries relating both to the biomedical (morbidity and mortality) outcomes and to the psychosocial (life quality) outcomes. Finally, quality of life attributes are increasingly examined in evaluating the cost effectiveness of cardiovascular care, in addition to morbidity and mortality data; determining features involve the resultant functional independence of the individual as a result of care, productivity, return to remunerative work, and level of life satisfaction.