Abstract:
Background: Heart failure (HF) is defined as a chronic, progressive condition in which the
heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood to the heart to meet the body requirements of
blood and oxygen. Basically, the heart cannot keep up with its workload. According to
World Health Organization (WHO), 2014 coronary heart disease deaths in Sri Lanka
reached 32,582 or 25.74% of total deaths. Patients with heart failure experience various
physical and emotional symptoms such as dyspnoea, fatigue, oedema, sleeping difficulties,
depression and chest pain. These symptoms limit patients’ daily physical and social
activities and result in poor quality of life (QOL). Understanding the factors that influence
on the wellbeing of patients with heart failure will allow nurses to focus on specific
intervention for enhancing their quality of life.
Objectives: To assess the health related quality of life of patients’ with heart failure on
treatment in National Hospital Sri Lanka (NHSL).
Methodology: Descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among sample of randomly
selected 197 patients having heart failure on treatment in NHSL cardiology clinic. Data were
collected using interviewer administered WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire after the pre-test.
Ethical approval was obtained from the ethical review committee of KAATSU International
University and NHSL. Data were analysed according to the WHOQOL user manual
Results and conclusions: Most of the participants were Sinhala (64.3%, n= 110), Buddhist
(56.1%, n= 96) males (66.7%, n= 114) belong to age group 50-59 (45%, n= 77). Among the
participants 83.6% (n= 143) were married and 24% (n = 143) were educated up to advance
level. Most of the participant having poor physical (64.3%), psychological (66.1%) and
social (64.3%) QOL. Nearly half of the participant (48%) having poor environmental QOL.
The overall quality of life was poor in most of the patient with HF. Health education and
health promotion programmes should be conducted to uplift the QOL of the patients.
