Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in Hypertensive Patients

Abstract

Hypertension also called as increased blood pressure (BP) is a chronic disorder in which BP is persistently elevated in the main systemic arteries. The main risk factor for cardiovascular disorder is hypertension. It is common in almost all countries.  It makes a silent and gradual progress.  Quality of life  is a wide term which mainly affects the physical health, psychological condition, level of independence, social relationships and personal beliefs of a person. The HRQoL in people with hypertension can be mostly affected by the disease condition itself or due to the adverse effects of the treatment. Determining the quality of life of patients with hypertension has become an important issue. The HRQoL of hypertensive patients can be improved if the treatment and lifestyle modifications are done correctly. Counseling the patients with hypertension regarding risk factors, lifestyle modifications and medication adherence can also improve the HRQoL. Several questionnaires are available for assessing the HRQoL of people with different disorders. This questionnaire or instrument can be categorized into two types: the questionnaires for a specific disease and the general questionnaire. The SF instrument was introduced in the United States of America by the RANDS Corporation’s Health Insurance researches. It has now been translated to more than 120 world languages. Short form instrument is divided into different types which includes SF-36, SF-12, SF-20 and many more. EuroQol created EQ5D as a standardized method for assessing health status to provide a clear, objective health measure for medical and economic evaluation. The EQ5D instrument comprises of three versions: EQ-5D-5L, EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-Y. WHOQoL- BREF, is a generic questionnaire administered on its own which contain 26 items. The MINICHAL was developed or introduced in 2001 in Spain which contains 17 questions. The word MINICHAL was obtained from “Mini Cuestionario de Calidad de Vida en Hypertensión Arterial".