A Grounded Theory of the Process of Improving the Quality of Life in Patients with Heart Disease

Aims: Heart diseases lead to a change in the patient’s lifestyle, which affects satisfaction and quality of life. This study aimed to explain the process of improving the quality of life of heart patients in Iran. Participants Methods: This qualitative study was a grounded theory study in hospitals in Karaj, Iran. Thirty-two patients with heart disease were interviewed. A purposeful sampling method was used in this study. To collect data, unstructured interviews were conducted, and data were analyzed based on Corbin and Strauss analysis method with five steps. Findings: Through data analysis, four main concepts were obtained that reflect the experiences of the participants, including “inability to control daily life”, “striving for self-management”, “perceived support from spouse and children”, and “abandonment of the patient and family in the care knowledge gap”. Conclusion: Heart patients and their families suffer from financial, physical, psychological, and educational crises that have a very unpleasant effect on them, and these crises can increase the physical and psychological pressures on patients many times over. Of course, sometimes physical disabilities are added to them with old age and complicate the problems. There is an urgent need to educate heart patients from the time they are admitted to the hospital until they are involved with the disease.