Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) is the patient's perception of how their disease affects physical, mental and social aspects of their life. It has been shown that HRQL can be significantly impaired following any cardiac event and that lower HRQL contributes to increased risk of complications and death in cardiac patients. However, all such studies have left out a very important group of cardiac patients, namely those less than 55 years of age. In British Columbia, each year, more than 1000 patients under the age of 55 years have heart attack. In particular, women in this age group have very poor prognosis and are at higher risk of death compared to men in the same age group. This difference is not explained by traditional cardiac risk factors such as severity of the disease. Whether or not having lower HRQL explains the poor prognosis of women in this age group has not been studied. As a first step towards addressing this knowledge gap, we will examine HRQL in adults<55 years of age, taking into account the interconnected role of the sex driven (i.e. biological and physiological) and gender driven (i.e. psychosocial, behavioral)characteristics involved in shaping HRQL. Using several questionnaires we will measure HRQL as well as clinical and psychosocial factors, such as stress, depression, social support and family responsibility which have all been shown to have impact on the recovery process. The objectives of the study are to: 1) Measure the difference in HRQL between women and men < 55 yrs, at the time they are admitted for a heart attack and also examine how their HRQL changes over the first 12 months; 2) Determine which clinical and psychosocial factors influence HRQL and how these factors differ between men and women. This study will provide new knowledge about HRQL in heart attack patients<55 yrs. The findings will also inform the new development of better strategies for support and treatment of these patients.