Changes in patients' quality of life with venous ulcers treated at the outpatient clinic of a university hospital

Objective: to verify changes in the quality of life (QL) of clinic patients with venous ulcers (VU) in the clinic of a University Hospital in Natal city/RN, Northeast of Brazil. Method: this is about a cross-sectional, descriptive study, from quantitative approach, conducted with 50 patients with VU treated at the vascular clinic of a university hospital in Natal / RN. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the UFRN (No. 279/09). Data collection was performed in two months by implementing means of a structured form concerning data of socio-demographic, health, clinical and care of the patient. The data were categorized in the Microsoft Excel and processed by SPSS 15.0 by descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: the respondents have experienced discrimination of society, showed changes in quality of life after the occurrence of ulcer in relation to leisure and pain; social restriction; education and transportation; employment restrictions, financial and social progression; physical appearance and discrimination; restriction of home activity. By comparing these changes with the time of injury, it was observed that the time of injury influences the change in QL (ρ = 0.000). Conclusion: Identified that several socio-demographic factors, clinical and care are influenced by UV, reflecting on the QL of patients. Thus, denoting that the more chronic the injury is more negative changes occur in their QL. Descriptors: quality of life; venous ulcers; nursing.