Interestingly, the women in this study who took statistically
more gender-role responsibilities than the men had a
lower quality of life than the men. Previous studies have alsofound that women who have more role functions or had more
pressure to return to their social and household role functions
had poorer physical outcomes post-CABG as compared to
men (Artinian & Duggan 1995, Hawthorne 1994). This
raises the question as to what role responsibilities women
require in order to identify their self-value and feel needed.
Further investigation concerning gender role-function effects
on quality of life is needed.