COMPLIANCE WITH THE MEDICAL REGIMEN AND PARTNERS QUALITY-OF-LIFE AFTER HEART-TRANSPLANTATION

The authors investigated 40 heart transplant recipients and their part ners to determine both the partner's quality of life upon transplantat ion and the experiences of both patient and partner with compliance wi th the medical regimen. Data on sleep disturbances, social isolation, emotional reactions, depression, anxiety, partner's apprehension, soci al support and compliance (regarding behaviour and emotional experienc e) were obtained approximately 21 months after transplantation. Compar ed to related study groups, partners did not experience more problems in sleep, social isolation, emotional reactions, depression and anxiet y. Patients overestimated the apprehension of their partners significa ntly (p < 0.0001). Generally speaking, with the exception of three ite ms relating to eating fish, canned food and forgetfulness in medicine intake, patients and partners agreed with respect to actual compliance behaviour. Lowest compliance concerned regular physical exercise: 28% . Both patient and partner insisted that they had scarcely any emotion al problem with the regimen. Further systematic research is needed to bring to light factors that affect compliance as well as adequate meth ods to bring about an improvement therein.