OS 22-06 Evaluating the Health Related Quality of Life of Hypertensive Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and assess the health related quality of life (HRQOL) of hypertensive patients in West India using the MINCHAL scale and WHO-BREF questionnaire.

DESIGN AND METHOD: 500 male hypertensives (age group 20-60 years) that were on anti-hypertensive treatment for minimum six months were chosen for a cross-sectional study. They were divided into 3 categories of hypertension according to the JNC-7 classification i.e., Stage 1 and Stage 2 as "uncontrolled" hypertension and pre-hypertensive as "controlled" hypertension. Pearson correlation coefficient and students-t test were used for data analysis.

RESULTS: Mean number of symptoms were 4.35 ± 2.8 and 65% (325/500) patients evaluated had at least three symptoms at the time of interview of which Fatigue and tiredness (81.8%, n = 409/500) were the most common symptoms. Duration over which the patients were suffering from hypertension was 8.45 ± 10.30 years. Systolic and diastolic BP were 137 ± 19.79 and 85.19 ± 7.03 mmHg respectively. 44% (220/500) of the respondents had uncontrolled hypertension. Total number of drugs prescribed were 7.62 ± 3.71 while number of antihypertensive drug prescribed were 2.54 ± 0.98. 225/500 (45.0%) patients followed non-pharmacological measures.Age showed significant negative correlation with all domains except environmental WHOQOL-BREF (P < 0.05). Systolic BP and number of symptoms showed significant positive correlation with MINICHAL scale (P < 0.05) and negative correlation with WHOQOL-BREF domains (P < 0.05). Number of co-morbidities showed significant positive correlation with MINICHAL domains (P < 0.05). Number of drugs prescribed showed significant negative correlation with physical and social domains of WHOQOL-BREF scale. All domains and total WHOQOL-BREF score were lower in patients with co-morbidities (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Impaired QoL is seen in hypertensive patients with more co-morbidities and more number of prescribed drugs, especially in systolic hypertension. Both HRQoL instruments (MINCHAL scale, WHO-BREF questionnaire) are significantly correlated with each other.