This prospective descriptive research was conducted to determine and compare the quality of life in Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) patients before and three months after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG). The participants were forty patients who underwent CABG at Chulalongkorn, Ramathibodi, and Siriraj hospitals from March to September 2000. Purposive sampling was used. The inclusive criteria were 1) patients who underwent only coronary artery bypass graft surgery as treatment. 2) able to communicate in and speak Thai 3) agreed to participate in this study. The exclusive criteria included 1) patients who did not complete the two periods of data collection or 2) patients who were hospitalized longer than two months after the operation. Data were collected by structured interview using a demographic questionnaire, the Jenkin Activity Survey (JAS) which had Chronbach alpha = .72, and the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) which was developed by Bergner and colleagues with Chronbach alpha of .81 and .79 at the preoperative and postoperative period, respectively. The clinical data were recorded from medical records. Most of the participants were male, aged from 60 to 80 years, and unemployed. The majority of the patients had triple vessel disease which mostly occurred at the left anterior descending coronary artery. They had underlying diseases and risk factors. Most of them had functional level 3 and frequent chest pain. According to the SIP scores, the quality of life of the CAD patients before surgery was poor overall and poor in the 3 dimensions: physical, psychosocial, and independent. At 3 months after operation, almost all patients (except1) were working in their previous job. A majority of the sample had functional status 2 and a small number of them had chest pain. Their quality of life was improved significantly (p<.001) overall and in the 3 dimensions. However, they were still in a dysfunctional condition. The results of this study could be used as basic information for health care providers to establish a protocol for caring for CAD patients, especially a discharge plan and a rehabilitation program for the CABG patients. This should give CAD patients maximum potential for quality of life living with their families in the community.

M.N.S. ADULT NURSING มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล ปี 2544

of, coronary, Quality, heart, life, artery, BYPASS, GRAFT