[Assessment of the relationship between psychological factors and impotency with quality of life of male patients following CABG]

ABSTRACT

Given the increase in prevalence of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft [CABG] surgery and the significant role of psychological factors in prognosis and relapse of cardiac disease, the present study is designed to determine the relationship between psychological factors or impotency and quality of life of male patients following CABG. In this descriptive- analytical study 160 male patients were randomly selected four weeks after heart surgery and were administered DASS-21, IIEF-5 and SF-36 to assess anxiety, depression and stress, impotency and quality of life, respectively. Regression analyses [One-way ANOVA] and Chi-square were performed to analyze the data. Findings showed that the average age of patients was 60 [ +/- 10] years. Among psychological variables the average score for depression was significantly related to the average scores of quality of life [p=0.02]. Furthermore, 62.4% of patients had some degrees of depression; 86.7% had some degrees of stress and 47.3% had anxiety to some degree. Also, 85.5% of patients displayed mild to severe levels of erectile dysfunction which were significantly correlated with scores in anxiety [p=0.03] and depression [p=0.001]. Finally, diabetic patients had higher scores in depression and stress compared to non diabetic patients. The findings are discussed in the context of proposing interventional strategies for improving psychological conditions of CABG patients