Introduction:

The coexistence of peripheral artery disease in patients with acute coronary syndrome affects health-related quality of life. Cardiac rehabilitation is an effective tool for the treatment of both diseases.

Objective:

To assess health-related quality of life according to the EQ-5D questionnaire before and after rehabilitation.

Methods:

A total of 484 patients discharged from the coronary care unit with a diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome were studied. They were diagnosed with peripheral artery disease by ankle-brachial index test and started cardiac rehabilitation from March the 1st, 2011 to February the 30th, 2018. Their quality of life was assessed using the EQ-5D questionnaire before and after rehabilitation. The Pearson correlation coefficient was employed for quantitative variables and the Wilcoxon nonparametric test was utilized to contrast the hypothesis of equality between two population medians in ordinal and interval variables.

Results:

The dimensions assessed by the EQ-5D quality of life questionnaire show a positive correlation between pain-free walking distance and exercise time with the results of the EQ-5D score, thus demonstrating the benefits of rehabilitation.

Conclusions:

Cardiac rehabilitation improved the quality of life of patients with peripheral artery disease and acute coronary syndrome.

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