CHANGES OF LIFE QUALITY SCORE DEPENDING ON THE ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION DEGREE IN THE GENDER ASPECT
Authors: Alifer O.A. 
Published: August 2020

Relevance. Hypertension is one of the most common chronic diseases, for which currently the goal of therapy is not so much recovery as improving circulatory function with a satisfactory quality of life.

Objective: to determine the impact of different degrees of hypertension on quality of life in female and male patients.

Materials and methods. 126 patients with arterial hypertension underwent examination, including 86 women (68%), 40 men (32%) aged 40 to 81 years (mean age 61.9 ± 0.3 years). Arterial hypertension of I degree had 19 people (15.1%), II degree - 65 patients (51.6%), III degree - 42 people (33.3%). The control group consisted of 43 healthy individuals who did not differ from the main group in terms of demographics. Surveys of patients to assess the quality of life conducted with the questionnaire SF-36 (Short Form-36) at each follow-up. Quality of life indicators has value in points.

Results. The analysis of quality of life indicators in the group of healthy people found that the level of quality of life in men is much higher than in healthy women: "physical pain", "role functioning" - P1-P2> 0.5; "Physical functioning" - P1-P2 <0.001; "Physical health" - P1-P2> 0.5, except for the scale "general health" - P1-P2 <0.05 (77.2 ± 3.02 vs. 63.75 ± 2.81).

The comparison of the quality of life of patients with hypertension of I degree and patients with arterial hypertension of III degrees found reliable differences on the scales "Vitality" (P1-P3 <0.001), and "Social functioning" (P1-P3 <0.5). In patients with II and III degrees of arterial hypertension indicators of quality of life were low in themselves and differed on a scale "role functioning" of the questionnaire: "Vital force" (P2-P3> 0,5); "Role functioning" (P2-P3 <0.5); "Mental health" (P2-P3> 0.5).

Patients with hypertension of the I degree in comparison with arterial hypertension of the II degree had reliably higher indicators of quality of life on scales "vital force" (80,0 ± 3,93 points) and "role functioning" (77,1 ± 4,04 points) ), but reduced indicators of "social functioning" and "mental health" (48.7 ± 7.35 and 47.41 ± 2.39 points, respectively).

Patients with hypertension of I degree and III degree showed reliable differences on the scales "vital force" (P1-P3 <0.001) and "social functioning" (P1-P3 <0.5); and patients with hypertension of II and III degrees showed a significant decrease in all indicators of quality of life, especially on the scales "social functioning" and "mental health" (up to 31.5 ± 5.19 and up to 40.31 ± 2.23 points, respectively).

Patients with hypertension of I degree had a decrease in general health (87.1 ± 3.16), physical function (82.6 ± 2.86), and physical pain (87.1 ± 3.16). Patients with II degree of hypertension had a significant reduction in role functioning (32.4 ± 5.19), physical pain, and general health (36.0 ± 6.12 and 42.26 ± 2.68 points, respectively).

Conclusions. Hypertension significantly affects the quality of life. The state of health of patients with hypertension significantly limited their physical activity.