Health-related quality of life of coronary artery bypass grafting and percutaneous transluminal coronary artery angioplasty patients: 1-year follow-up.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to compare the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) before the interventions and 6 and 12 months afterward, and to compare their HRQoL also with that of the general population. Methods: The sample (n = 615) consisted of consecutive coronary artery disease patients treated with elective CABG (n = 432) or PTCA (n = 183). The baseline data before the treatments were collected by structured interview, the follow-up data mainly by mailed self-administered questionnaires. HRQoL was measured by the 15D. For comparisons, the groups were standardized for differences in socioeconomic and clinical characteristics with a regression analysis. Results: At baseline, the average 15D scores of the patient groups were 0.752 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.743–0.761) in CABG and 0.730 (95 percent CI, 0.716–0.744) in PTCA. After standardization, the difference between the groups was statistically significant but not clinically important. These scores were significantly worse (statistically and clinically) than the score of 0.883 (95 percent CI, 0.871–0.879) in the general population sample matched with the gender and age distribution of the patients. By 6 months, the CABG and PTCA patients had experienced a statistically significant and clinically important improvement to 0.858 (95 percent CI, 0.844–0.872) and 0.824 (95 percent CI, 0.806–0.842), respectively. No significant change took place in either group from 6 to 12 months. Conclusions: Both CABG and PTCA produces an approximately similar, clinically important improvement in HRQoL in 1-year follow-up.