Predictors of quality of life in patients at one year after heart transplantation

Background: A multivariate approach to the study of relationships between q uality of life and demographic, physical, and psychosocial variables after heart transplantation has not been examined in a large, multi-site sample. The purpose of this study was to describe quality of life, examine relation ships between quality of life and demographic, physical, and psychosocial v ariables, and identify predictors of quality of life in patients who were 1 year post heart transplantation. Methods: Data were collected ri om a nonrandom sample of adult patients (n = 232) who were 1 year post heart transplantation at a Midwestern or Southe rn medical center. Nine self-administered instruments and chart review were used to gather data from patients. Air tools had adequate psychometric sup port. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and step-wise multiple regression were used to analyze data. Level of significance was set at 0.05 . Results: Patients were most satisfied with the areas of quality of life reg arding social interaction and least satisfied with their psychological stat e. Patients experienced an average amount of stress, were coping fairly wel l, reported overall good quality of life, and were very satisfied with the outcome of their transplant surgery. Nine out of 16 variables were signific ant predictors of quality of life and explained 66% of the variance in qual ity of life: less stress, more helpfulness of information from health care providers, better health perception, better compliance with the transplant regimen, more effective coping, less functional disability, less symptom di stress, older age, and fewer complications. Conclusions: Predictors of quality of life at 1 year after heart transplant ation were primarily psychological. Additional variance in quality of life was explained by physical, somatic sensation, demographic, and health statu s variables. Knowledge of these factors provides (1) information to identif y patients who are at risk for poor quality of life at 1 year after heart t ransplantation and (2) direction for the development of interventions to im prove quality of life.