A Longitudinal Study of Health-related Quality of Life in Recipients of Heart Transplantations

Measurement of treatment outcome which considers physiologic data and patierits' health related quality of life (HRQL) currently guides clinical practice, particularly when evaluating innovative and costly procedures such as cardiac transplantation. The purpose of this study was to examine HRQL pre and post transplantation utilizing a longitudinal design. Twenty nine participants completed the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) at five time intervals pre and post transplantation. Results revealed significant improvement of SIP Physical scores between four months pre and four months post transplantation and four months pre and one year post transplantation (p<.03, p<.05 respectively), while no significant differences were observed with respect to Psychosocial and Total SIP scores. Implications for the rehabilitation counselor are discussed.