Effect of physical activity on the life quality of coronary artery bypass graft patients.

INTRODUCTION: The quality of life depends on physical, psychological and social factors that are evidently influenced by the individual's actions, prospect, attitude and behavior. Heart disease is one of the most imperative health problems in the world. Studies showed that exercise-based rehabilitation for patients with coronary artery disease effectively lowers the rate of cardiac death. The intent of this study was to determine the effects of physical activity on the life quality of cardiovascular patients after coronary artery bypass graft. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This randomized clinical trial was performed on two groups of coronary artery patients of Yazd Afshar hospital. All the 70 participants were post surgery coronary artery patients who were divided into two groups. Data was collected by two questionnaires: A personal information questionnaire and a quality of life questionnaire (SF=36). Data of both groups was collected in the first and fourth month after the discharge from surgery and sessions were analyzed by SPSS 16 and by using T-test and Chi-square. RESULTS: Results displayed that after the intervention, all the categories of the components of the quality of life were increased except for general health. There was no significant differentiation between these statuses in the control group and the premier grades about the components of the social function (88.98 out of 100). The comparison of total scores of the quality of life before the intervention showed the quality of life of both groups one month after surgery was not significant (p=75%), but in four months after surgery, the distinction between the mean grade scores of the intervention, the group was considerable (p=0.0001). CONCLUSION: The comparison of the total scores of the quality of life indicated an increase in the scores of the quality of life in the intervention group after the exercise.

A study of the effect of cardiac rehabilitation on heart failure patients' life quality.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiac rehabilitation is a way of improving the quality life of heart failure patients. AIM: Determining the effect of physical activity on the quality of life of patients with heart failure. METHODS: This study was conducted on 34 patients affected by heart failure with an ejection fraction of less than 40%. The patients followed both psychological and nutritional consultations in the beginning of the program. The patients participated in 24-32 sessions of physical activity three times a week, each time lasting 1-1.5 h. Each session consisted of 20 min of warming up, 20-40 min of aerobic exercises, 5 min of cooling down, and 20 min of relaxation. Physician's visit, exercise test, echocardiography, fat and blood sugar profile tests were conducted for all patients before and after the rehabilitation program. The Life Quality Form SF-36 was filled out for them and the data were analyzed using the SPSS. RESULTS: Our findings showed that there was a statistically significant increase in the mean score of the patients' life quality after rehabilitation. Also, the comparison of the scores of the eight aspects of patients' life quality before and after rehabilitation revealed that life quality improved in the following directions: physical functioning, limitation of physical health, limitation of psychological health, energy, social functioning, and physical pain. All differences were statistically significant yet, the difference regarding the aspects of psychological health and general well-being were not significant. CONCLUSION: Cardiac rehabilitation is effective on improving the life quality of cardiac failure patients.