A third of heart and vascular patients find it hard to keep on their work: Study

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: After suffering a severe heart attack, about one-third of the patients have not resumed their work, according to a latest study.

The study also highlights that even after an year of their recovery patients who are hospitalized for a longer period of time due to heart problems or strokes find it hard to keep on their

professional life.

Heart failure is a serious illness that significantly reduces both quality of life and life span.

"Inability to maintain a full time job is an indirect consequence of heart failure beyond the usual clinical parameters of hospitalization and death," said Rasmus Roerth, a physician at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.

The study was conducted on 11,880 heart failure patients of working age (18 to 60 years) who were employed prior to being hospitalized for heart failure.
Researchers found that one year after being hospitalized for heart failure for the first time, 68 per cent of patients had returned to work, 25 per cent had not, and 7 per cent had died.

The study also showed that patients were less likely to return to work if they had stayed in hospital for more than seven days, or had a history of stroke, chronic kidney disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes or cancer.
(With PTI inputs)