QUALITY OF LIFE, PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT AND DEATH ANXIETY AMONG CARDIOVASCULAR PATIENTS

Abstract

Objective: To measure the relationship among quality of life, perceived socialsupport and death anxiety in cardiovascular patients.

Methodology: This cross-sectional study measured the quality of life, perceivedsocial support and death anxiety among cardiovascular patients throughpurposive sampling from two public hospitals (Bahawal Victoria HospitalBahawalpur and Shaikh Zayed Hospital Rahim Yar Khan) of Southern-Punjab,Pakistan, conducted from March 2016 to December 2016. Only out-patients onfollow up checkup with no diagnosed comorbidity were included in thestudy.Three questionnaires were used for data collection WHO-QOL, PerceivedSocial Support and Death Anxiety Scale.

Result: A total of 132 cardiovascular patients were included in the study. Qualityof life and perceived social support negatively correlated with death anxiety(p < .05). Better quality of Life was found to be more in males with M (SD)=71.94 (12.33) as compared to females M (SD) = 65.23 (17.08) at t=4.50.Perceived social support and death anxiety was found higher in females M (SD)=65.27 (11.22) as compared to malesM(SD)=55.39 (14.83) t=-7.71.

Conclusion: Quality of life and perceived social support were at lower level anddeath anxiety was higher among cardiovascular patients. Gender played asignificant role in quality of life, social support and death anxiety in cardiovascularpatients.