A Comparative Analysis of the SF-12 and the SF-36 among Ischaemic Heart Disease Patients

Pain Scales: What Are They and What Do They Mean

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

It is essential to have validated and reliable pain measurement tools that cover a wide range of areas and are tailored to individual patients to ensure effective pain management. The main objective of this review is to provide comprehensive information on commonly used pain scales and questionnaires, including their usefulness, intended purpose, applicability to different patient populations, and associated advantages and disadvantages.

RECENT FINDINGS

Acute pain questionnaires typically focus on measuring the severity of pain and the extent of relief achieved through interventions. Chronic pain questionnaires evaluate additional aspects such as pain-related functional limitations, psychological distress, and psychological well-being. The selection of an appropriate pain scale depends on the specific assessment objectives. Additionally, each pain scale has its strengths and limitations. Understanding the differences among these pain scales is essential for selecting the most appropriate tool tailored to individual patient needs in different settings.

CONCLUSION

Medical professionals encounter challenges in accurately assessing pain. Physicians must be familiar with the different pain scales and their applicability to specific patient population.

Factors affecting adherence to physical training in the outpatient phase of rehabilitation, in patients after coronary artery bypass grafting

Aim      To evaluate the outpatient physical exercise (PE) compliance and the affecting factors in patients after coronary bypass (CB).Material and methods  The study included 67 men with ischemic heart disease younger than 75 years who had had CB. All patients were randomized to 2 groups: group 1 exercised on a bicycle ergometer at the rehabilitation center, under the monitoring of medical staff; patients of group 2 performed home-based exercise (HBE) by dosed walking. In the preoperative period, at one month after CB, and after 3 months of exercise, the following was evaluated: clinical condition of patients in different groups, plasma concentrations of lipids, body weight index, waist circumference, echocardiography and bicycle ergometry data, and questionnaire data (SF-36, Bek's Depression Inventory). At 3 months of follow-up, the outpatient exercise compliance and the affecting factors were also evaluated.Results The study demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed alternative 3-month program of home-based PE. Both the patients exercising on a bicycle and those performing HBE had increased exercise tolerance (ET) and improved blood lipid concentrations. The number of obese patients decreased. Also, depression severity decreased, quality of life (physical and psychological components) improved, and compliance with drug therapy increased in both groups. Analysis of the training attendance in the recommended period showed that patients who had undergone CB were insufficiently adherent to physical rehabilitation programs, regardless of the program type (home-based or monitored). The highest PE adherence was observed in men with the following characteristics: married, working urban residents, with a previous history of cardiovascular diseases, who had regularly taken medications in the preoperative period, and who also had higher quality of life.Conclusion      The proposed outpatient 3-month physical rehabilitation programs increase the effectiveness of CB, which is evident as improved adherence to modifying cardiovascular risk factors, increased ET, optimization of the psychological status and quality of life, and improved compliance with drug therapy. However, despite the proposed alternative, home-based 3-month physical rehabilitation programs aimed at increasing the treatment compliance, the level of ET remained low. This requires further improvement of methods for monitoring and motivation of patients to physical rehabilitation and psychological support that would start already at the preoperative stage.

Effect of aerobic training on exercise capacity and quality of life in patients older than 75 years with acute coronary syndrome undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention

BACKGROUND

Limited clinical studies are available on early exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in elderly acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effect of aerobic exercise on exercise capacity and quality of life (QoL) in such patients.

METHODS

Seventy elderly patients with ACS undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in Zhejiang Hospital during August 2016-June 2017 were randomly divided into the control (n = 35) or cardiac rehabilitation group (CR, n = 35). The control group was treated with standard medical treatments without exercise, whereas the CR group was treated with standard medical treatments and exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation. General information, cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) results, responses to QoL and mental health questionnaires, and clinical outcomes and safety were collected.

RESULTS

The CR group safely finished CPET and the 12-week exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation. After the 12-week intervention, the CR group showed significant differences in maximal oxygen uptake (VO_2max) and greater improvements in VO_2max, compared with the control group. The CR group showed statistically significant differences in QoL and mental health compared with the control group.

CONCLUSION

CPET-based exercise in cardiac rehabilitation can safely increase exercise capacity and QoL in such patients.

[Сhanges in quality of life in patients with congestive heart failure after cardiac resynchronization therapy]

PURPOSE

To assess the quality of life (QoL) changes in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) one year after cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).

METHODS

The study included 82 patients (68 males and 14 females) aged from 30 to 74 (mean age 55.8±9.2 years) who underwent implantation of a biventricular cardiac pacemaker for CRT. Depending on the echocardiographic response to CPT, the patients were divided into two groups: 56 people with a positive response (responders) and 26 people with insufficient response (non-responders). The SF-36 questionnaire was used to measure QoL. The results of the questionnaire were represented as scores over the eight subscales: physical functioning (PF), role-physical functioning (RP), bodily pain (BP), general health (GH), vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), role-emotional (RE), and mental health perceptions (MH). The QoL assessment was performed before and one year after CRT.

RESULTS

Patients with CHF one year following CRT had significantly higher rates of improvement in PF QoL (before CRT 46.28±26.16; one year after CRT 53.05±27.65, p=0.023). The statistical tendency towards QoL improvement was revealed: VT QoL (before CRT 47.07±20.12, after CRT 51.83±20.07, p=0.081), SF (before СРТ 61.58±25.06, after CRT 67.07±24.57, p=0.088). Group of responders one year after CRT had significantly higher rates of improvement of QoL in PF (45.2±26.0 before CRT vs 57.1±26.4 after CRT, p=0.001); in VT (46.5±20.8 vs 54.4±19.7, p=0.010) and in SF (60.9±26.4 vs 70.8±20.8, p=0.012). The statistical tendency towards QoL improvement was revealed in BP (57.5±25.1 before CRT vs 64.8±23.8 after CRT, p=0.079), in GH (45.3±16.4 vs 49.1±18.0, p=0.079) and in MH (57.7±18.9 vs 62.5±17.7, p=0.081). In the group of nonresponders the statistical tendency towards decrease in QoL was detected during one year after CRT in RE (46.2±45.3 before CRT vs 26.9±41.1 after CRT, p=0.07). No significant differences were found in paired comparisons of other QoL indicators.

CONCLUSION

We revealed significant increase in PF index in patients with CHF one year following CRT. The study showed that QoL was generally improving one year following CRT in responders while a tendency towards decrease in RE was detected in non-responders.

[The comparative analysis of the influence of the supervised exercise training and home-based exercise training on the psychological status of the following coronary artery bypass grafting]

This article was designed to report the results of the comparative analysis of the influence of the home-based exercise training (HBT) and the supervised exercise training in the form of the controlled training (CVT) under conditions of outpatient rehabilitative treatment on the patients' quality of life (QoL) and psychological status (including manifestations of anxiety and depression) following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

AIM

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the consequences of the application of different programs of physical rehabilitation under the outpatient conditions on the psychoemotional status and quality of life of the patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass grafting.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 114 male patients suffering from coronary artery disease (CAD) who had undergone CABG were available for the examination. All the patients were allocated to three groups. Group 1 was comprised of the patients (n=36) treated with the use of the supervised cycling training (SCT) while group 2 consisted of the patients who had to perform home-based walking training (HBWT) (n=36). The group of comparison included 42 patients. The psychophysiological assessment was carried out based on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Spielberger-Hanin Personal and Reactive Anxiety Scale. The quality of life (QoL) was assessed with the use of the SF-36 questionnaire. All the patients were examined prior to surgery, 1.4 months and 1 year after CABG.

RESULTS

The study has demonstrated the most pronounced improvement in the quality of life of the patients following the 3-month supervised cycling training after CABG that was manifested as the decrease of anxiety and depression. The minimal changes in the psychological and emotional status were documented in the absence of any exercise training integrated into the postoperative rehabilitation program. Only the moderate improvement of QoL was observed in the patients treated with the application of the 3-month home-based walking training program after CABG. The positive effects of the three-month exercise training were evened out within 1 year after its initiation.

DISCUSSION

It has been shown that the effectiveness of HBT is somewhat lower than that of CVT in terms of the influence on the psychoemotional status of the patients following CABG. This finding is at variance with the results reported by the foreign authors and should provide a basis for the enhancement of the effectiveness of the post-CABG rehabilitation programs to be implemented under conditions of the medical facilities, their principal objective being the education of the patients in safe and efficient methods for the pots-surgical self-rehabilitation with the emphasis placed on the measures intended for the improvement of the approaches to monitoring the compliance of the patients with the prescribed recommendations and for increasing their motivation to observe as long as possible the advices given by the health care professionals.

CONCLUSION

The home-based walking training of moderate intensity provides a safe, easy to perform, and readily available tool for a large number of patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting even though it is somewhat less effective than the supervised cycling training. The effects of both rehabilitation modalities are rather short-term.

Substitution of SF-36 by SF-12 Among Hong Kong Chinese Older Adults: Secondary Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

PURPOSE

This study aims to examine the appropriateness of substituting the Short-Form 36 (SF-36) by its shortened version (SF-12) in measuring health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older Chinese population.

METHODS

Secondary analysis of two transitional care management programs, conducted from 2009 to 2012, were analyzed (n = 1188, aged 60-97). Participants were discharged patients with respiratory disease, type 2 diabetes, cardiac disease, and renal disease, and were classified according to number of chronic diseases. SF-36 was administered at baseline and 4-week follow-up.

RESULTS

Both overestimations and underestimations of HRQoL by SF-12 were found. Most domain scores of SF-36 and SF-12 were highly correlated (Spearman correlation (ρ) > 0.85), with the exception of General Health (ρ = 0.64) and Vitality subscales (ρ = 0.82). Multiple linear regression adjusted for demographic characteristics showed that the four out of eight domains of SF-36 and SF-12 were equivalent in measuring the difference across numbers of chronic diseases (all p < 0.05). Paired sample t tests in 989 (83.2 %) who completed the SF-36 survey 4 weeks after baseline showed that SF-12 overestimated the 4-week changes in most of the domains.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of the Chinese version of SF-12v2 for reporting the change over time in quality of life among medical patients after hospital discharge may need to be interpreted with caution. The SF-12 tends to underestimate the difference when compared with the SF-36.

Comparison of the short form-12 (SF-12) health status questionnaire with the SF-36 in patients with knee osteoarthritis who have replacement surgery

PURPOSE

To investigate whether the performance of the short form-12 (SF-12) health survey is comparable with the longer version SF-36 for measuring health-related quality of life over time in patients with knee osteoarthritis who have joint replacement surgery.

METHODS

Four hundred and seven patients with knee osteoarthritis completed the SF-36 before surgery and at a minimum of 12 months following knee replacement. SF-12 item responses were obtained from the responses given to the SF-36 questionnaire. Correlation coefficients were calculated between SF-12 and SF-36 physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores and the respective change in scores. Sensitivity to change was determined with the standardised response mean (SRM).

RESULTS

PCS and MCS scores were highly correlated between SF-12 and SF-36 versions for both preoperative and post-operative measures (r = 0.90-0.96, p < 0.0001). Change scores (post-operative-preoperative) were also highly correlated (PCS: r = 0.88, p < 0.001;

MCS

r = 0.93, p < 0.001). Sensitivity to change was large for the PCS scale (all SRMs >1.0). Correlations above 0.7 were found between change scores for each SF-36 and SF-12 subscale except General Health (r = 0.55).

CONCLUSIONS

The SF-12 summary measures and component scores replicate well with the SF-36 and show similar responsiveness to change. The SF-12 appears to be an adequate alternative for use in patients with knee osteoarthritis who undergo replacement surgery, and its brevity should be attractive for both clinicians and patients.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

I.

Validation of the Mongolian version of the SF-36v2 questionnaire for health status assessment of Mongolian adults

BACKGROUND

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, is one of the world's worst air-polluted cities, but effects of this air pollution on the population health status have not yet been evaluated. Therefore, we developed a Mongolian version of the SF-36v2 questionnaire to investigate the health status of Mongolian population.

METHODS

Health checkups were conducted in Ulaanbaatar and the health status was measured using a Mongolian translated version of the SF-36v2 questionnaire. The reliability and validity of the Mongolian SF-36v2 questionnaire, and the relationship between health status and respiratory condition were examined.

RESULTS

Factor analysis of the Mongolian SF-36v2 questionnaire showed that the "Role-physical" and "Role-emotional" were classified into a single subscale. The "Mental health" and "Vitality" were each divided into two subscales. Cronbach's alpha and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for reproducibility were >0.7, except for "General health perceptions" (Cronbach's alpha and ICC < 0.7), "Social functioning" (Cronbach's alpha < 0.7), and "Vitality" (ICC < 0.7). The SF-36v2 subscales and the corresponding items of the COOP/WONCA charts were correlated, and subjects with respiratory symptoms showed lower SF-36v2 scores compared to normal subjects, suggesting external validity. Subjects with respiratory symptoms showed significantly lower scores for the majority of the SF-36v2 subscales than those with normal lung function. In subjects with combined ventilatory impairment, "Physical functioning", "Role-physical", "Bodily pain", and "Vitality" scores were significantly lower than those with normal lung function.

CONCLUSIONS

The Mongolian version of the SF-36v2 questionnaire provides substantial reliability and validity, and is useful for evaluating the health status of Mongolian adults with ventilatory impairment. Health status measured by SF-36v2 was significantly aggravated by combined ventilatory impairment when compared with normal lung function.

Self-reported health following percutaneous coronary intervention: results from a cohort followed for 3 years with multiple measurements

Objective

Improvements in the treatment of coronary heart disease have increased the number of patients living with a chronic heart disease. Patient-reported outcomes are required to adequately describe prognosis. We report self-rated health in a population-based cohort of patients with coronary heart disease treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Methods

Over 3 years, we followed 1,726 patients under 65 years treated with PCI with eight repetitive questionnaires. With the use of multiple imputation, we described the course of self-rated health using the short form 12-item survey’s mental component summary (MCS) and physical component summary (PCS) and analyzed adjusted differences by sex, age, educational level, indication for PCI, and left ventricular ejection fraction along with an analysis of decrease in health status.

Results

MCS scores increased during follow-up, while PCS scores were stable over time. Men rated higher in MCS and PCS than women, and older patients rated higher in MCS than younger. Other differences were negligible. Younger age was identified as a risk factor for marked decrease in mental health over time.

Conclusion

In a complete population-based cohort of PCI patients with multiple measurements, we found improvements in mental, but not physical health over time. Demographic differences in health were larger than disease-related differences.

The effects of integrated inpatient health care on patient satisfaction and health-related quality of life: Results of a survey among heart disease patients in Germany

OBJECTIVES

Since 2004 a large German health insurance company (Techniker Krankenkasse) has provided integrated inpatient health care (IHC) contracts to its members. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of this programme on patient satisfaction and health-related quality of life among heart disease patients.

METHODS

A case-control study was conducted with patients in cardiologic and cardiosurgical units who were discharged in 2006. The cases included approximately 750 IHC patients from eight hospitals, whereas the controls were chosen both from the same and other hospitals. Data consisted of interviews in written form (overall response rate: 70.7%), and routine data of health insurances. Main assessment criteria were patient satisfaction with care measured by a modified standardised questionnaire (FK-P), and the SF-12 instrument for measuring health-related quality of life.

RESULTS

In many respects, patient satisfaction with care was the highest among the IHC patients, followed by controls from the same hospitals, and by those from other hospitals. The process indicator of the lowest satisfaction across all three groups was the provision of competencies to deal with problems at home after discharge ("patient education"). Further benefits of IHC are the reduction of both the average length of hospital stay and the waiting time of patients for rehabilitation. By contrast, no statistically significant differences were found with regard to patient-reported health improvement and health-related quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the IHC programme did not seem to improve the patients' health-related quality of life and health status, positive effects on patient satisfaction and the efficiency of hospital care could be detected. For future research one ought to check the advantages and/or disadvantages of IHC for other disease groups, and should, if possible, use a prospective study design as well as integrate clinical parameters.

Quality of life in patients with coronary heart disease-I: assessment tools

Health-related quality of life (HRQL) assessment is an important measure of the impact of the disease, effect of treatment and other variables affecting people's lives. The review focused on the assessment of HRQL in patient with coronary heart disease (CHD) by appropriate tools. Although no consensus exists about the precise definition of HRQL, a plethora of instruments have been developed to assess it. Two broad types – generic and disease-specific – have been developed but there is some debate about their relative merits. There is a wide selection of instruments available but choice should be based on a careful consideration of an instrument's psychometric properties, the breadth and depth with which it addresses relevant health domains and the specific clinical or research purpose for which it is intended.