Background: Hypertension is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in Saudi Arabia. It is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and a major reason for visits to clinic and prescription of medications. Inspite of this, the degree of its control is not to the optimum. This could be due to its impact on patients' quality of life (QOL). Impaired physical and psychological well-being may lead to non-compliance or even the withdrawal of treatment . The aim of this study was to assess QOL of hypertensive patients registered in Al-Khobar.
Methods: The QOL of hypertensive patients was compared with QOL of a control group. A total of 404 subjects (202 cases and 202 controls) were interviewed. The cases and controls were matched for age and sex. Patients' self-assessment of QOL was measured with an Arabic version of SF-36, a 36-item Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire encompassing two main dimensions, physical and mental.
Results: The QOL of hypertensive patients was substantially impaired in comparison to the control group. The mean scores for the physical component summary scale (PCS) were 39.3 and 50.8 for cases and controls respectively. The mean scores for the mental component summary scale (MCS) were 43.7 and 50.8 for cases and controls respectively. The burden of hypertension was concentrated in the physical dimension of health. Older age, female gender, unmarried patients, patients with hypertension complications, comorbid DM, use of Aldomet and shorter duration of hypertension were independently related to poorer QOL. The variability of the two summary measures explained by selected demographic and clinical characteristics was 24.3% and 10% for the PCS and MCS respectively.
Conclusions and recommendations: The QOL of hypertensive patients was substantially impaired in comparison to the control group. Notably, the total explained variation of QOL by the selected characteristics was small, suggesting that the determinants of QOL are multi-factorial. Further research to explore the determinants and indices of QOL in hypertensive patients is warranted. From a clinical perspective, QOL should be considered in the monitoring of hypertensive patients to estimate the burden of hypertension and monitor their outcome.
Keywords: Quality of life; SF-36 questionnaire; hypertension; primary health care.