Health Problems and Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Lower Limb Ischemia-A Polish Population One-Centre-Based Study.

Background/objectives: Unhealthy lifestyle and genetic predisposition contribute to chronic lower limb ischemia. This study (conducted in phases I-III) aimed to identify health problems and assess patients' quality of life with chronic lower limb ischemia treated in one Polish clinical center.

Methods: The Polish version of the Vascular Life Quality Questionnaire scale (consisting of five domains (subscales)) was used to assess quality of life. Phase I was conducted in the Outpatient Clinic and included 122 patients, 38 women and 84 men, aged 41 to 88 years, with chronic lower limb ischemia. Phase II was conducted only among those (n = 88) qualified for revascularization treatment (the study was conducted preoperatively), and phase III took place six months after the revascularization procedure.

Results: The primary health problem was lower limb pain and limited physical activity. With the age of the patients, the quality of life in the "symptoms" subscale deteriorated. Independent variables such as gender, marital status, level of education, and place of residence did not significantly affect the quality of life of the patients studied. Moreover, statistically significant differences in the quality of life were observed between the patients before and after revascularization treatment in the overall assessment and each area of the VascuQol scale.

Conclusions: Based on our results, we stated that there is still a need to educate these patients about proper health behaviors because a large group of patients still have modifiable risk factors for the development of atherosclerosis. They require a multidisciplinary and individual approach.