Publication Date

2010

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department

School for Social Work

Keywords

Heart-Transplantation-Patients-Services for, Heart-Transplantation-Patients-Mental health services, Psychotherapy-Outcome assessment, Psychosocial care, Post heart transplant, Psychosocial assessment, Survival, Non-standardized hospitalization, UCLA Medical Center, California Heart Center Foundation

Abstract

This quantitative retrospective study examines the correlation between post surgical psychosocial interventions and outcome in heart transplant patients who were identified as at-risk preoperatively and able to receive a heart transplant, where outcomes included survival and number of non-standardized hospitalization. Data was collected from the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center heart transplant database. Data was analyzed by using two-tailed t-tests and chi-square tests to assess the variation between groups. The Wilcoxon log-rank statistic was used to compare Kaplan- Meier survival curves. 46 patients were identified as at-risk during their pre-transplant psychosocial assessment. Results indicated that at-risk patients who received psychosocial care demonstrated a significantly higher 5-year actuarial survival compared to patients that did not receive post transplant psychosocial care (68% vs. 38%, p=0.038). Similarly, patients in the post transplant psychosocial care group exhibited a significantly higher 1-year freedom from any hospitalization compared to the patients without psychosocial care following transplantation (66% vs. 33%, p=0.019), while patients with post transplant psychosocial care only demonstrated a trend toward lower 5-year actuarial freedom from any hospitalization compared to the group without post transplant psychosocial care (36% vs. 24%, p=0.09). This study revealed that psychosocial intervention post heart transplant appears to yield better survival and decreased number of non-standardized hospitalizations. Further study is warranted in order to assess the impact of psychosocial care for patients following heart transplantation.

Language

English

Comments

iv, 31 p. : ill. Thesis (M.S.W.)-Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2010. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-29)

Download

Share

COinS