IJCS | Volume 33, Nº1, January / February 2019

39 Table 3 – Comparison between mechanical and bioprosthetic valves of the SF-36 scores in each domain Domain Type of prosthesis Mechanical Bioprosthesis p Median 25 th percentile 75 th percentile Median 25 th percentile 75 th percentile Functional capacity 65 55 75 75 60 80 0.12 Physical functioning 75 75 100 100 75 100 0.46 Pain 84 62 84 84 62 100 0.59 General health 72 67 82 72 62 82 0.93 Vitality 70 65 75 70 60 75 1 Social functioning 100 75 100 100 75 100 0.44 Emotional functioning 100 100 100 67 67 100 0.0084* Mental health 60 52 60 56 44 60 0.66 Mann-Whitney test; *p < 0.05. Molero Junior et al. Valve prosthesis: assessment of quality of life Int J Cardiovasc Sci. 2020;33(1):36-42 Original Article practiced physical exercise regularly, mostly walking, 2-3 times a week. With respect to the SF-36 domains, the highest scores were found for social functioning (mean of 89.25), and the lowest scores for mental health (mean of 54.4). Comparisons of SF-36 results and sociodemographic data betweenmechanical prosthetic valves and bioprostheses are found in Table 3. Comparison of SF-36 scores by the type of prosthesis implanted showed that emotional functioning scores were significantly higher in the emotional functional domain for patients with mechanical prosthesis compared with those with bioprosthesis (0.0084) (Table 3). In the analysis by valve replaced, patients with aortic valve replacement showed significantly higher scores for the functional capacity domain (p = 0.0047). In addition, significantly higher scores were found in the functional capacity domain for men compared with women (p = 0.0264). Considering the marital status, married patients showed significantly higher scores in the general health (p = 0.0287) and social functioning (p = 0.0063) domains compared with single patients. Regarding the income of participants, those who received more than BRL1,000 showed significantly higher mean scores for the pain (p = 0.0375) and general health (0.0078) domains. Working patients showed significantly higher scores in functional capacity (p = 0.0112) compared with non-working patients. Finally, considering physically active versus physically inactive individuals, mean scores of physical functioning (p = 0.0385), general health (p = 0.0371) and social functioning (p = 0.0069) domains were significantly higher in physically active individuals. No difference in SF-36 scores was found between individuals according to race/ethnicity, educational attainment, age, or BMI. The item of the SF-36 questionnaire that compares current QoL of patients with the QoL one year before showed that, as compared with the QoL one year before, 22.2% of the patients reported that current QoL is much better; 33.33% a little better and 36.1% reported that current QoL is almost the same; 8.33% a little worse, and 0% much worse. When analyzed by gender, in general, male patients reported a better QoL – 62.5%of men reported that current QoL is a little or much better than one year before. When analyzed by the type of valve implanted (mechanical vs. bioprosthetic valves and aortic vs. mitral), patients with bioprosthesis and patients with aortic prosthesis referred a better QoL nowadays compared with one year before.