Assessment of the quality of life for elderly people with acute myocardial infarction living in al-najaf

Background: Having heart diseases or coronary artery disease is the leading cause of heart disease deaths. Its syndrome includes myocardial infarction syndrome, sudden cardiac death, and stable angina. Moreover, it causes myocardial ischemia and massive necrosis, so acute myocardial infarction occurs due to sudden blockage of a coronary artery. Acute myocardial infarction has increased in younger age groups, with mortality rates as well as progressive arrhythmias, cardiogenic shock, and persistent retrosternal pain, putting patients at risk of death. Emergency percutaneous coronary intervention opens and dredges blood vessels to restore blood flow and reduce the determined myocardial area, thus resulting in improved patient prognosis. Patients with myocardial infarction may develop coronary artery stenosis and ischemia after this intervention. Perioperative nursing care for acute myocardial infarction patients undergoing interventional therapy has been shown to directly influence surgical success, reduce complications and improve rescue success rates, which has significant clinical implications for finding a safe and effective mode of care to improve outcomes of patient with acute myocardial infarction and therapeutic effects. Health-related quality of life, a new term developed in the past 30 years, encompasses the physical and emotional factors. Health-related quality of life takes into account expectations of an individual's physical and mental health, like energy level and mood, as well as the relationships between these two aspects of health, health risks and disorders, employment status, welfare, and socioeconomic status. Acute myocardial infarction survivors are characterized and subjective health-related quality of life pathway differences are not noted. It would be easy to determine whether integrated care therapies would enhance valetudinarians' long-term quality of life; therefore, quality of life measurements may improve physical functioning, relieve pain, and predict treatment efficacy or mortality rate. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the quality of life in old age patients with acute myocardial infarction. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between February and May 2022 in three hospitals (Al-Hakim General Hospital, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Hospital, and Al-Najaf Center for Cardiac Surgery and Catheterization) in Al-Najaf City, Iraq. The population consisted of old age patients with acute myocardial infarction in these hospitals. The sample consisted of 197 old age male and female patients in the related hospitals: 48 in Al-Hakim General Hospital, 39 in Al-Furat Al-Awsat Hospital, and 110 in Al-Najaf Center for Cardiac Surgery and Catheterization who agreed to participate during the data collection time. Inclusion criteria were determined as being 60 years or older in these hospitals, being hospitalized patients. Patients in the hospital other than these hospitals were also excluded. Data were collected using a personal information form and the MacNew heart disease health-related quality of life questionnaire and analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and ANOVA and t-test in SPSS 26 software. p≤0.05 was accepted as the level of significance. Result: 51.3% of the participants were female and 71.6% were older than 65 years of age. 55.8% were married, 81.2% were unemployed, 48.7% were hospitalized in the cardiac care unit for the first time, 45.2% were secondary graduates, and 42.1% stayed in hospital for 3 days. The score of MacNew heart disease health-related quality of life questionnaire was 67.78 ± 8.71, the mean score of global subscale was 0.86 ± 2.71 and the lowest mean score was obtained from social subscale (2.11 ± 0.74). The score of MacNew heart disease health-related quality of life questionnaire was higher in those who were from the age group of 60-64 years, were working couples, were staying in critical care units for the first time, were college/university graduates, had no comorbidity, and were staying in the hospital for one day compared to the other groups, and there was a statistically significant difference between them (p≤0.05). Conclusion: Consequently, it was found that old age patients with myocardial infarction were affected by variables such as age, marital status, work, and education.