Abstract P107: Comparing Perceptions of Chronic Heart Failure Patients' Health Status Prior to Hospitalization by Patients and Their Family Caregiver/Significant Others

Abstract

PURPOSE: Little is known if family caregivers/significant others (FC/SOs) have similar or different perceptions of the patients' health status. FC/SO perception may influence care decisions and affect patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to compare chronic HF patients' and FC/SOs' perception of the patients' health status prior to hospitalization and relationship to time to seek care. METHODS: Participants were 144 hospitalized chronic HF patients and 144 FC/SOs recruited to complete the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). The questionnaire was administered to both patients and their FC/SOs during the patients' hospitalization to measure perceptions of the patients' health status 2 weeks before hospitalization. The KCCQ is a validated questionnaire that quantifies physical limitation, symptoms, social limitation, self-efficacy, and QOL for patients with HF; lower scores meaning worse perceived health status. The questionnaire with modified wording was used for FC/SOs to respond about their perceptions of the patients' health status and reliability was evaluated. Patient participants were primarily white males with a mean age of 66.2 (SD=15.3). Mean LVEF was 33.3 % (SD=18.3). The FC/SO participants were primarily family members and white females; mean age of 58.2 years (SD=14.3). RESULTS: Paired t-test correlation analysis revealed the responses from patients and FC/SOs as significant (p<.001) and highly correlated on their perceptions of the patient’s physical limitation ( r =.63), symptom frequency ( r =.68), symptom burden ( r =.61), social limitation ( r =.59); and moderately correlated on perceptions of QOL ( r =.38), self-efficacy ( r =.38), and symptom stability ( r =.44).Cronbach's alphas for patient KCCQ and FC/SO KCCQ were .91 and .90, respectively. Overall health status summary scores were highly correlated ( r =.70) but the patients' overall score was significantly inversely related to days to hospitalization ( B =−.031, p =.01). CONCLUSIONS: The health status of chronic HF patients is perceived similarly by both patients and FC/SOs as poor and is associated with longer time to seek care. Further research is needed to understand how these perceptions influence decision making to seek appropriate and timely care.