Background: This study investigates changes of quality of life (QOL), physical activity (PA) and symptomatic status (NYHA) at one-year post-coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
Methods: Of 568 patients undergoing a primary isolated CABG for stable angina (NYHA <IV) pre- and 1-year postoperative data on QOL, PA, and NYHA were complete. Studied outcomes were changes in QOL, EuroQoL questionnaire, PA, the Corpus Christi Heart Project criteria and NYHA. Analysis was based on three age groups. Group A, age <65 years: 285 patients, group B, 65-74 years: 210 patients, and group C, age >or=75 years: 73 patients.
Results: There is a similar, significant decrease of NYHA class (1.4) for the three groups (p<0.0005). An overall significant improvement for QOL and PA is however different in the three subgroups. PA improvement is not significant in group C (p=0.74), significant in group B (p=0.005) and in group A (p<0.0005). For the QOL, group A shows a significant improvement for the five different domains, group B for two, and group C only for one domain. The visual analogue score as part of the QOL registration shows a significant increase for the three groups, however the improvement is minor with age, and between A (14.6) and C (9.1) this improvement is significantly different (p=0.047).
Conclusions: Elderly patients have the same improvement of their symptomatic status as younger patients. However despite this improvement they have less benefit from CABG regarding to their quality of life and physical activity.