Evaluation of quality of life of hypertensive patients

Objective To evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of patients with hypertension. Methods Totally 319 patients with hypertension were investigated for their QOL in comparison with 319 healthy controls using the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment instrument (WHOQOL-100). Results The scores of physical functions, psychological condition, independent ability, social relation, living environment, and personal faith and the total score of QOL-100 were significantly lower in the hypertensive patients than in the normal subjects (P0.01). After adjusting the confounding factors of other diseases, the scores of all the items with the exception of personal faith and the total score of QOL-100 were all lower in the patients than in the controls (P0.01). Hostelling T2 test and multivariate analysis of variance showed significant differences in the QOL between the hypertensive patients and the controls in the 6 domains synthesized (P0.01), further demonstrating lowered QOL of hypertensive patients in comparison with the healthy population. Conclusion Improvement of the hypertensive patients' QOL in addition to effective blood pressure control is a basic target in clinical therapy of hypertension.