O-96 Health-Related quality of life after pacemaker implantation in Surinamese patients: a prospective cohort study

Methods: This study was conducted at the cardiac outpatient clinic of the Academic Hospital Paramaribo. Patients who underwent a PM implantation participated after providing informed consent. Personal, clinical and two HRQoL questionnaires (the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form (SF-36) and Assessment of Quality of Life And RELated events (AQUAREL)) were used to collect data. For statistical analysis the Student’s t-test and the Pearson correlation were used.

Results: This study included 14 (male: N=7) participants. The median age of the participants was 68.5 [47–82] years. Positive health was measured at long-term for the following six SF-36 domains and all AQUAREL domains: physical functioning (p=0.017); role physical (p=0.035); mental health (p=0.032); general health (p=0.007); vitality (p=0.04); social functioning (p=0.035); dyspnea (p<0.001); chest discomfort (p=0.007) and arrhythmia (p<0.001). Moreover, no significant changes were found for two SF-36 domains: bodily pain (p=0.205) and role-emotional (p=0.752). Increased age was related to more chest discomfort (p=0.021; r=–0.609) at long-term. Females reported worse health compared to males for bodily pain (p=0.05; r=0.533), mental health (p=0.016; r=0.630), general health (p=0.008; r=0.677) and dyspnea (p=0.043; r=0.548) at longterm. Ethnicity was not related to HRQoL. These findings might have implications for PM implantation as well as its protocols using HRQoL as an outcome measure.

Conclusion: After PM intervention, increased age and female sex negatively influence HRQoL at long-term. Ethnicity was not related to HRQoL. These findings might have implications for PM implantation as well as its protocols using HRQoL as an outcome measure.