Influence of hypertensive crisis on evaluation of quality of life of patients with arterial hypertension

In accordance with the concept of the WHO one of the main objectives of patient treatment is the reduction or elimination of disease symptoms, control over them and over the factors of the risk. However, this goal cannot be fully achieved if the patient sense of well-being - physical, mental and social - is not taken into account. The dynamics of clinical indicators during the process of treatment is less important for a patient than the impact of the disease on his functioning in the society, in the family and his sense of life satisfaction. The life quality criteria are used for evaluation of these health components. The quality of life as an integral multifactorial indicator allows estimating individual importance of different components for the certain patient, including the economic, sociological, psychological and medical aspects. The life quality analysis conducted on the non-specific questionnaire SF-36 showed that most of the patients feel themselves completely healthy after having hypertensive crisis. The presence of severe symptoms of hypertensive crisis significantly lowers the quality of life, but only for the period of the crisis. The hypertensive crisis, roughly reducing the working ability, makes people draw their attention to their own health. After relieving the symptoms of the disease only older patients have lower indicators of the quality of life caused by longer period of the disease as well as the presence of comorbidity. As our survey of the quality of life showed the majority of patients admitted the relief of hypertensive crisis symptoms as a recovery that was evidenced by the presence of 100-point assessment of the state of their health before their discharge on the scale of physical functioning, role functioning connected with both health and emotions, and the intensity of pain. Only patients with a long clinical record and comorbidity evaluate the results of the treatment and the prognosis of their health state for the future more modestly.