Death anxiety and sleep quality in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators

INTRODUCTION: Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are an effective treatment for preventing sudden cardiac death, but they can cause certain psychosocial problems in patients. Although patients are particularly at risk for death anxiety and sleep disorders, these issues have not been addressed in any research together. The goal of this descriptive study was to investigate the link between patients with ICD and their levels of death anxiety and sleep quality.
METHODS: Eighty-eight patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and attended a university hospital for routine battery follow-up participated in the study. The patient information questionnaire, the Pittsburgh sleep quality ýndex, and the Templer death anxiety scale were used to collect the data. The data were analyzed with the SAS 9.4 package program. The Shapiro-Wilk test, t test, Chi-squared test, Mann–Whitney U-test, and variance analysis were used to analyze the data.
RESULTS: Patients with low socioeconomic standing had poorer sleep quality (p<0.001), and women under the age of 50 had higher levels of death anxiety (p<0.001). In addition, ICD shocks substantially reduced sleep quality and raised anxiety levels (p<0.05). The anxiety and problems related to ICD increased death anxiety significantly (p<0.05).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In Turkish patients, ICD is linked to elevated levels of anxiety about death and poor sleep quality. The study’s findings are expected to will donate to the biopsychosocial support of the patients by planning appropriate interventions to improve the sleep quality and anxiety levels of the patients. It is advised that the findings of the study be examined with subsequent studies and various populations to differentiate the effects of comorbid conditions and cultural traits on ICD experiences.