Health-related quality of life in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm undergoing endovascular aneurysm repair: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) has become a common surgical treatment for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), and postoperative health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is drawing increasing attention. Most studies compare HRQoL in EVAR patients and open aneurysm repair patients, while few studies have investigated HRQoL in EVAR patients versus the general population. This study aimed to investigate whether HRQoL differs between patients with EVAR patients and the general population. METHODS: EVAR patients were recruited from a medical center in northern Taiwan. General population subjects and the EVAR patients were paired based on age and sex, and a simple random sampling method was used for sampling at 2:1. In this study, we used the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale Abbreviated Version, Taiwan Version to investigate HRQoL. A multivariate regression model was used to analyze intergroup differences related to facets and domains. RESULTS: A total of 58 patients with EVAR and 116 individuals from the general population were included in this study. The EVAR patients’ mean scores for overall QoL and the physical domain, psychological domain, social relations domain, and environment domain were 3.79, 15.53, 15.00, 14.93, and 15.57, respectively, and all of these scores were significantly higher than those in the general population. In addition, the β values (β = 0.21, 0.73, 1.83, 0.81, and 2.62, respectively) of the EVAR patients were also significantly higher in the multivariate analysis. The findings showed that a high education level and nonsmoking status were associated with higher HRQoL, while unemployment was associated with lower HRQoL. CONCLUSION: EVAR patients had higher HRQoL than the general population, indicating that patients with AAA have a high likelihood of recovering and enjoying high HRQoL if they receive appropriate medical procedures and nursing education.