'A pacemaker in my heart' -- classification of questions asked by pacemaker patients as a basis for intervention

The research aimed to identify the information patients find necessary, following pacemaker implantation.

Although pacemaker devices do not have an adverse impact on lifestyle, they evoke anxiety related to the patient's activities and lifestyle.

Survey.

A convenience sample of participants was taken from the entire population of patients who attended the cardiology clinic between January-June 2007; 274 individual meetings were held with 123 pacemaker patients in three periods, reflecting different stages of recovery. In the meeting, patients were invoked to ask any question they may have regarding pacemaker implantation. The questions were collected from the patients and categorised chronologically, in accordance with their frequency in three periods, reflecting different stages of recovery.

Eight categories, representing common issues and content were raised: motion and effort, environmental influences, personal hygiene, knowledge concerning the pacemaker operation, medical treatment, eating and drinking, clothing and general questions. Findings show that the common factor for most of the questions was the loss of confidence in the various aspects of life. The largest relative question proportion was in the motion and effort (27%) (e.g. may I swim? how many kg may I lift?) and environmental influences (26%) (e.g. may I use a cellular phone? may I use a shaving machine?).

A coherent, continuous pattern was found, characterising the different points of measurement where, at the first point, questions were characterised as more existential, related to daily routine activities and as time passed and patients were exposed to non-daily activities and conditions, other questions were raised.

Pacemaker implant guidance should be based upon experimental evidence, arranged according to each category's relative weight and take into account the patient's point of view.