Determination of shock anxiety and quality life inpatients with implantable cardioverterdefibrillator (ICD)

ABSTRACT "Determination of Shock Anxiety and Quality of Life in Patients with Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD)", Trakya University Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Internal Medicine Nursing, Master's Thesis, Edirne, 2024. Background and Aim: Shock anxiety negatively affects daily living activites in patients with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD). This cross-sectional study was planned to determine and detail the relationship between shock anxiety and quality of life in patients with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD). Material and Methods: The study was conducted between 30.09.2022-30.03.2023 in the Cardiology Clinic and programs affiliated with the Cardiology Outpatient Clinic at a university hospital in Edirne. The data of the study were collected by the "Patient Information Form", "Floride Shock Anxiety Scale (FSAS)" and "Notthingham Extended Activities Scale in Daily Life (NGYA)". The data were evaluated with SPSS 18.0 program descriptive statistics calculations (number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Student t Test, Anova, Kruskal Wallis Test, Mann-Whitney U Test, Spearman Correlation Analysis). Values of p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Patients with ICD mean of age was 63.5±12.7 and 61.5% were male. It was found that 57.29% of the participants had myocardial infarction (MI), 54.17% had an ICD implanted due to heart failure, and 41.67% felt/experienced the shock cause by the ICD. A negative and significant relationship was found between FSAS and NGYA in patients with ICD (p=0.020). It was found that the shock anxiety of the patients increased and the limitation in daily life activities increased. Shock anxiety was found to be significantly higher in women compared to men when they experienced shocking (p<0.05). The daily life activity level of men was higher than women, single people compared to married and widowed people, secondary school graduates and above were higher than primary school graduates, and employees were higher than employed and retired people (p<0.05). The activity of daily living was found to be higher in patients with ICD with arrhythmia than in others, in New York Heart Association (NHYA) functional Class I patients than in others (Class II, III and IV), and in patients without chronic disease than in others (p<0.05). Conclusion: Shock anxiety of patients with ICD was found to be at a moderate level, and activities of daily living were found to be at a good level. As the shock anxiety of patients with ICD increased, their activities of daily living also deteriorated. Nurses should consider the patients' personal (gender, working status, etc.) and disease-related characteristics (clinical diagnosis, etc.) when evaluating the shock anxiety experiences of patients with ICD. Nurses should plan to provide appropriate nursing interventions to reduce shock anxiety and improve daily living activities of patients with ICD. It is recommended that cardiology nurses evaluate the shock anxiety and daily living activity levels of patients with ICD with valid and reliable scales. Keywords: Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), shock anxiety, quality of life, nurse.