Background: Women undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery have a worse medical condition and fewer social and financial resources than men. Some studies have found that women recover less well than men after CABG, whereas others have found women's outcomes comparable to those of men. Past studies of health-related quality of life after CABG have too few women for adequate comparison with men and have not included patients whose data are not available at baseline (eg, emergency CABG), limiting generalizability.
Methods: A longitudinal study of symptoms and health-related quality of life was conducted among patients from four clinical centers enrolling both men (n = 405) and women (n = 269) in the Post CABG Biobehavioral Study in the United States and Canada.
Results: After 6 weeks from CABG (average 81 days), both men and women had less anxiety and symptoms related to depression than before surgery (P <.001). After 6 months (average 294 days), both men and women improved in physical and social functioning (P <.001). Although changes in scale scores were similar for men and women at each time point, women scored lower than men on these domains (P <.001, adjusted for baseline medical and sociodemographic differences) and had more symptoms related to depression through 1 year after CABG (P =.003).
Conclusions: Both male and female patients improve in physical, social, and emotional functioning after CABG, and recovery over time is similar in men and women. However, women's health-related quality-of-life scale scores remained less favorable than men's through 1 year after surgery.