Abstract 17560: Characteristics Associated With Symptom Diary Use in Patients With Heart Failure

Abstract

Introduction: Health care providers regularly counsel heart failure (HF) patients to monitor symptoms and weight changes daily in order to detect and quickly treat HF exacerbations. We found diary use is associated with higher survival rates in chronic HF patients; however, the factors related to diary use are unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the factors associated with diary use. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of a 3-arm randomized controlled trial among rural HF patients with two intervention groups (Fluid Watchers LITE and PLUS) and usual care. The two intervention groups were asked to use daily diaries for 2 years to track weight, HF symptoms, and response to symptom changes. The intervention groups received education on HF self-care and a script to call their health care provider; however, the 2 groups varied on the number of follow-up phone calls received. Patient groups were categorized by duration of adherence to diary use: None, Low (1-3 months), Medium (4-12 months), and High (13-24 months). Multivariable ordinal logistic regression using step-wise forward selection was conducted to determine factors that were associated with diary use. Results: Patients were 66 ± 13 years old, 58% were male, and 50% had systolic HF with 67% (N=264/393) of patients who completed diaries. After controlling for age, depression, and death in the multivariable logistic ordinal regression, depression (OR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.92-0.98; P=0.002) and sedentary lifestyle (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.42-0.89; P=.01) were associated with less diary use. In contrast, older age (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.07-2.3; P=.02) and HF self-care (OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01-1.06; P=.01) were associated with more diary use. Conclusions: Since diary use is associated with higher survival rates in HF patients, it is important to recognize that depression and sedentary lifestyle were negatively associated with diary use whereas older age and HF self-care were positively associated with diary use. Addressing modifiable psychosocial factors may have meaningful impact on improving survival in this vulnerable population of HF patients who suffer from frequent rehospitalizations and early death related to their disease.