RAND-36 health survey
RAND-36 health profiles divided by type of vein graft are presented in Table 5. The patients treated with a no-touch vein graft reported higher mean values in seven of the eight health domains, indicating better HRQoL. Differences between the two groups were statistically significant (p<0.05) in four of the eight domains, all in favour of patients with the no-touch vein graft treatment (p=0.028 for physical functioning, p=0.022 for general health, p=0.010 for energy/fatigue, and p=0.026 for emotional well-being). In terms of ES, the between-group differences were trivial (ES<0.20) for the role functioning/physical, social functioning, and role functioning/emotional domains, and small (0.20 ≤ ES <0.50) for the other five domains (Table 5). The largest ESs (>0.40) were noted for the general health and energy/fatigue domains.
PSM analysis (Table 6) confirmed a statistically significant difference between the two groups for the physical functioning (p=0.041) and general health domains (p= 0.002). The difference for the energy/fatigue domain showed a borderline trend towards statistical significance (p=0.056).