Role of Adherence in Quality of Life of Coronary Heart Disease Patients

The present investigation attempted to assess the role of adherence in Quality of life (QOL) amongst coronary heart disease (CHD) patients. The sample comprised 300 subjects: 150 patients (both males & females suffering from CHD, i.e., MI or Angina), and 150 normal healthy controls (both males & females) in the age range of 30 to 55 years and from middle & upper middle class families. The subjects were administered the Medical Outcome Study (MOS) Measure of Patient Adherence (Hays, 1993) and The RAND Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire: SF-36 (Ware,1993) to assess general and specific adherence to medical regimen of patients and their Quality of life (i.e., Physical and Mental health-related QOL) respectively. Correlational Analysis of the data revealed positive correlation of general adherence & specific adherence recommendations with both physical & mental health-related QOL for CHD patients. Whereas for normal controls, specific adherence recommendations (e.g,. regular exercise, cut down stress, etc.) were negatively correlated with both physical & mental health-related QOL. Further, specific adherence behaviours were positively correlated with only mental health-related QOL of CHD patients whereas for normal controls these were positively correlated with only physical health-related QOL.