A Study to Assess the Knowledge and Quality of Life of Pacemaker Patients with a view to Develop an Information Booklet Chapagai Swaty1,*, Andrews G Rachel1, Naik Nitish2 1College of Nursing, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India 2Department of Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India *Corresponding Author Email: swatychapagai@gmail.com
Online published on 26 April, 2017. Abstract 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 selfdeveloped 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. Top Keywords Knowledge, Quality of Life, Pacemaker Patients, Information Booklet. Top |