Calidad de vida, apoyo social y autoeficacia en personas con infarto agudo de miocardio en un área sanitaria de la provincia de Huelva

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases represent a serious public health problem for their high morbidity and mortality, and the consequent high direct and indirect costs. This investigation studied the evolution of quality of life in patients diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction from a sample of all admissions to the intensive care units Hospital in Huelva. The patients were interviewed three times: the first between 6 and 12 months after the heart attack, the second time two years after, and the third meeting took place seven years later. Besides analyzing quality of life during the seven years of the study, we also examined the influence on the quality of life of socio-demographic characteristics, the social support available and the patients' beliefs in their own selfsufficiency. We used validated questionnaires and adapted to our cultural context. The quantitative data were analysed using the SPSS v.l8.0 program. Qualitative methodology was adopted to strengthen the research results by enabling us to find out about the patients' experiences, their needs and the causes ofthe problems they had faced sin ce the heart attack. The qualitative aspect of the study was developed by using a phenomenological perspective that was both descriptive and interpretative. The information for the study was gathered by in-depth interview, semi-structured interview, non-participatory observation and the fieldwork notebook. Content, discourse and category analysis were the techniques chosen for analysing this information. The software used in the qualitative analysis was the ATLAS.ti v. 5.6. Once submitted the results, the main conclusions are realized, finally propose alternatives or suggestions for intervention, care and patient care.