Affiliations: Institut für Medizinische Psychologie,
Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin. | Institut für Geschlechterforschung in der Medizin
(GiM), Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin | Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin
Note: [] Korrespondenzadresse: Dr. Friederike Kendel, Institut für
Medizinische Psychologie, CharitéCentrum 1 für Human- und
Gesundheitswissenschaften, Charité – Universitätsmedizin
Berlin, Luisenstraße 57, 10117 Berlin. Tel: +49 30 450 529201; Fax: +49
30 450 529990; E-mail: friederike.kendel@charite.de
Abstract: Objectives: Women before aortocoronary bypass surgery have a worse
health related quality of life (HRQoL) than men. Yet it is not clear how this
gender difference relates to a less favourable risk factor profile of women
compared to men. Methods: The sample consisted of 1587 patients (23% women), who
filled out a questionnaire on HRQoL, the SF-36, 1 –3 days before coronary
bypass surgery. Two hundred ninety-nine women and 299 men with a similar
clinical risk factor profile were matched on the propensity score and were
compared with respect to their HRQoL. Results: The preoperative marked gender differences in HRQoL were
reduced in all subscales of the SF-36. However, except for general health
perception and physical pain, they remained significant. An inspection of
effect sizes showed the greatest decrease in gender differences in physical
functioning (d = 0.64 versus d = 0.42), followed by physical role function (d =
0.46 versus d = 0.25), physical pain (d = 0.20 versus d = 0.07), and general
health perception (d = 0.20 versus d = 0.07). In the mental subscales, except
for vitality (d = 0.52 versus d = 0.33), matching led to only marginal changes.
Conclusion: Particularly in the physical subscales of the SF-36
matching led to a decrease in gender differences. In coronary bypass patients,
female gender seems to constitute an independent predictor of worse HRQoL.
