Correlação da capacidade funcional avaliada por testes físicos com a medida por questionários genéricos em pacientes internados com doença cardíaca

Abstract

Introduction: The assessment of functional capacity (FC) is important for diagnosis, prognosis and a strong predictor of mortality, determining the degree of restriction imposed by cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Therefore, there are quality of life questionnaires and physical tests that can be applied to assess the clinical and functional condition. The maximum effort test turns out to be unfeasible due to the hospitalized patient's health conditions and the risks to which he would be exposed. Alternatively, submaximal effort tests have been used, such as the 6-minute walk test, the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) and the Sit and Stand Test (SST). The last two are easy to apply and have shown excellent results. In addition, self-reported FC through questionnaires has also been proving to be important in the assessment of these individuals. Objective: 1 – Evaluate the applicability of clinical exercise tests and generic functionality measurement questionnaires to measure the FC of hospitalized patients with heart disease; 2 – To analyze whether the self-reported FC in questionnaires correlates with the patient's functional capacity measured by clinical exercise tests. Methodology: observational cross-sectional study, carried out with patients admitted to the cardiology ward of the Hospital Universitário Onofre Lopes (HUOL). All patients performed the clinical evaluation, the 30-second sit and stand test (SST) and the Timed Up And Go Test (TUG), and answered two questionnaires on activities of daily living (ADLs), the Barthel Index (BI) and the Katz Index (KI). Results: 15 patients were evaluated, 12 males and 3 females. The age of the patients ranged from 43 to 76 years, mean of 59.8 ± 10.7 years. The KI showed a moderate correlation with the TUG time (r=0.66, p=0.01) and a strong correlation with the number of repetitions in the SST (r=-0.77, p=0.002). The BI also showed a moderate correlation with the TUG time (r= -0,61, p=0,016) and with the number of repetitions in the SST (r=0,61, p=0,016). The scores of the two questionnaires showed a very strong correlation between them (r=-0.92, p<0.0001), while the performance in the functional tests showed a strong correlation between them (r=-0.79, p=0,0004). Conclusion: Both the TUG and the SSTL showed a good correlation with FC assessed using questionnaires, which suggests that they are good tools for assessing FC in hospitalized patients, being capable of detecting impaired functional status.