A Study to Assess the Knowledge and Quality of Life of Pacemaker Patients with a View to Develop an Information Booklet

Background: Pacemaker is the recommended therapy for treating the conduction system disorders. As permanent pacemakers are meant for life time use, a negligence and lack of knowledge can cause life threatening complications so subsequent evaluation of knowledge among the patients is the first step towards maintaining optimal quality of life. Objective: the main purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and quality of life of pacemaker patients during early and later phase after implantation of pacemaker with a view to develop an information booklet. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken using purposive sampling among 100 patients (50 early and 50 later phase) following permanent pacemaker implantation from a Tertiary care Hospital, India. Data was collected from June 2014 to December 2014 by means of a validated self-developed pretested structured knowledge questionnaire and WHOQOL-BREF. Results: The Mean knowledge score in later phase patients was higher than early phase patients (p = 0.008). Early phase patients had lower quality of life in social relationships (p = < 0.0001) and environment domain (p = 0.014) when compared to later phase. There was weak positive correlation of knowledge with quality of life in physical health (r = 0.32, p = 0.0206) and social relationships domain (r = 0.38, p = 0.0052) during early phase of pacemaker implantation. Conclusion: Knowledge and quality of life was not optimal during early phase after pacemaker implantation. Thus, development of an information booklet for these patients will help them to improve their self-care activities while preventing further complications.