The patients’ subjective assessment of health status after myocardial infarction

Abstract

Chronic disease process, regardless of the phase or intensity affects the quality of life of the patient. The purpose of the study was to analyze the quality of life of patients after myocardial infarct based on self-evaluation and identification of variables affecting the subjective assessment of patients. The study included 268 patients after myocardial infarct. The research tool was a questionnaire survey developed by the authors. The subjective assessment of the health status of patients was analyzed as well as the influence of gender, age, education, place of residence, time elapsed between the occurrence of disease, material conditions, and knowledge about the infarction. It was found that patients after the incident of myocardial infarct, when assessing health, usually rate it as good and satisfactory, avoiding the extreme assessments. Subjective evaluation was associated with the selected variables. The health condition was better assessed by the youngest patients, the persons to 30 years of age and the oldest-above 70 years as well as better educated people, having a good material situation, living in the city, ant those patients whose disease occurred over a year before and having knowledge of the disease. Medical personnel were often the source of information on heart failure, and to a lesser extent the Internet and mass media. Family members of the patient should have the knowledge of myocardial infarction and its consequences to give him support in further treatment and rehabilitation, as well as prevent against disease incidents in the future.