Investigating Occupation, Ejection Fraction, and Comorbidity Factors with Quality of Life in Heart Failure Patients: A Cross-sectional Study in Indonesia

Heart disease causes functional disorders that can cause the sufferer to experience fatigue and dyspnea, leading to low quality of life. Various factors related to the quality of life of heart failure patients include occupation and ejection fraction. The number of heart failure patients treated at Aceh government hospital is still high in 2021, as well as the incidence of recurrent hospitalization.

This study aimed to determine the relationship between occupation, ejection fraction, and heart failure patients’ quality of life.

The study used a quantitative research approach with a cross-sectional design. The sample was 154 heart failure patients who visited the Cardiac Polyclinic of a provincial hospital in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Data on patient occupation, ejection fraction, and comorbidity factors were obtained from the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the respondents. Then, the patient’s quality of life was measured by the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLHF) questionnaire. The chi-square test and logistic regression (with a significance level  = 0.05) were used in data analysis in this study.

The results of the study found a significant direct correlation between patient occupation (P = 0.001), ejection fraction (P = 0,001), and an inverse correlation of comorbidity factors (P = 0.001) with quality of life ( = 0.05). The multivariate analysis using logistic regression found that the dominant factor, ejection fraction, was associated with the quality of life of heart failure patients with OR: 12.033, followed by comorbidity factors (OR: 3.565) and occupation (OR: 1.819).

The quality of life of heart failure patients is strongly associated with the ejection fraction in heart failure patients; therefore, maintaining the ejection fraction is needed to improve the quality of life.