OBJECTIVES: Quality of life (QoL) among coronary artery disease (CAD) patients right after a surgical procedure and for the rest of life is poor with varying study results. Depression and anxiety remains a common factor in post-surgical patients. Frequency of visits to physicians and counseling remain significant predictors for a better QoL. We aimed to assess HRQoL among adherent and non-adherent medication groups of CAD patients.

METHODS: A prospective observational questionnaire based study was conducted after ethical approval. CAD patients were grouped under adherent and non-adherent category based upon Morisky scale value. Three questionnaires namely MacNew heart disease HrQoL, Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and Short form-36 (SF-36) were made use of in order to evaluate the QoL of patients. Student t test and Pearson’s correlation were used for the statistical analysis. A probability of less than 0.05 was considered to be significant.

RESULTS: A total of 200 (112 adherent; 88 non-adherent) were included in the study. A significantly (<0.001) increased anxiety (8.5 ± 1.5 vs 8.3 ± 3.0) and depression (7.6 ± 1.3 vs 6.9 ± 1.3) score was observed among non-adherent group when compared to the adherent group using HADS. Emotional domain score was significantly (p<0.05) higher among non-adherent group compared to the adherent group using HADS (0.61 vs 0.49) ad SF-36 (72.19 ± 25.18 vs 63.21 ± 36.47). Mean difference in social aspects was higher among the adherent group (9.2, p<0.05) compared to non-adherent group (6.4, p<0.001) under SF-36.

CONCLUSIONS: Our research infers that a better QoL is observed with medication adherent group when compared to non-adherent group among CAD patients.