Abstract
Quality of life (QOL) has attracted considerable attention in clinical research, and is now recognized as an important outcome of medical treatment, with advances in treatment of cardiovascular disease have contributed to improved survival of patients. An early QOL research in field of the cardiovascular disease was tied to the impact of hypertensive medications. Though every doctor participating in the study responded that their patients had improved after treatment, less than 10% of their patients recognized they had improved. It was clear that while doctors were most concerned with controlling patient blood pressure, patients were more concerned about low vitality and declining physical activity, which indicated the importance of measuring patient-reported outcomes. In Japan, QOL researches for cardiovascular diseases has increased, and referred to some clinical guidelines. But QOL evaluation in cardiovascular diseases is far from adequate. This paper reported a survey for adult congenital heart disease patients and their parents in the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, as one example of a QOL research. This study showed that patientsʼ parents which the conventional practice has been missed impaired QOL, the need for QOL evaluation is re-recognized.
