QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN CARDIAC PATIENT RESEARCH - A META ANALYSIS

This article reports a meta-analysis of 84 studies of quality of life (QOL) in cardiac patient populations published in the 5-year period 19 87-1991. Selected methodologies and substantive characteristics of the studies are described. An overall effect size of 31 indicated a small but significant positive effect of pharmacologic, mechanical, surgica l, nursing, or other treatment on QOL. No negative effect of treatment was found for any cardiovascular diagnostic category. Homogeneity ana lysis revealed eight potential moderators of the overall effect size: quality of study, gender of sample, time dimension, sampling method, i ntervention, martial status of subjects, quality-of-life dimension mea sured, and sample size.