Impact of age on improvement in health-related quality of life 5 years after coronary artery bypass grafting

The aim of this study was to describe the relief of symptoms and improvemen t in other aspects of health-related quality of life 5 years after coronary artery by-pass grafting in relation to age. Patients in western Sweden wer e approached with an inquiry prior to surgery and 5 years after the operati on. Health-related quality of life was estimated with 3 different instrumen ts: Physical Activity Score (PAS), Nottingham Health Profile (NHP), Psychol ogical General Well-Being Index (PGWB), Prior to surgery patients were appr oached either in the ward or by post and 5 years after surgery they were ap proached by post. A total of 1719 patients were available for the survey, o f whom 876 (51%) responded to the survey both prior to and after 5 years. A mong the 876 respondents 287 were <60 years, 331 were 60-67 years and 258 w ere >67 years. Tn terms of physical activity, chest pain and dyspnoea, a si milar improvement was observed regardless of age. In terms of health-relate d quality of life questionnaires, there was an inverse association between age and improvement when using PAS and a similar trend was observed with NH P and PGWB. In conclusion, 5 gears after coronary artery bypass grafting re lief of symptoms and improvement in physical activity was not associated wi th age, whereas improvement in other aspects of health-related quality of l ife tended to be less marked in elderly people. Overall age seemed to have a small impact on the improved well-being 5 years after coronary surgery. H owever, due to the limited response rate the results may not be applicable to a non-selected coronary artery bypass grafting population.