Paper
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Need for Gender Specific Strategies after Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery to Enhance Functional Status
Lani M. Zimmerman, PhD, RN and Susan A. Barnason, PhD, RN. Adult Health & Illness, University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing, Lincoln, NE, USA
| Learning Objective #1: explain the need to consider gender differences in postoperative care of CABG patients. |
| Learning Objective #2: describe baseline function status scores and the relevance to postoperative recovery. |
It is well established that women undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery are older, more likely to have emergent surgery, have more co-morbidities, and are more functionally impaired than men undergoing this surgery. Objective: The purpose of this paper is to describe the differences between 132 men (n=106) and women (n=16) on baseline and 6 week functional status scores after CABG surgery and examine the need for different strategies to facilitate recovery. Methods: This subset group of subjects was randomized to the control group in a larger, parent study. Functional status was measured using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (MOS SF-36). Results: At baseline women had significantly (p<.05) lower scores on the physical (t = 3.28) and role-physical (t = 2.05) subscales. Other subscales: vitality, role-emotional, mental and social had lower mean scores for women at baseline, however not significant. At 6 weeks, women still had significantly lower physical subscale scores and somewhat lower mean scores for the other subscales. Conclusions: Women having CABG surgery have lower functioning scores preoperatively compared to men and may need different intervention strategies to enhance postoperative functional status. Gender specific strategies that focus more on enhancing functional status for women in the early postoperative period (six weeks) should be developed and tested to address the differences in the reporting of functioning by men and women.