Effect of continuous nursing care on quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure at stable stage

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of continuous nursing care on quality of life, self-care ability, and readmission rate in patients with stable chronic heart failure. Methods A total of 122 patients with chronic heart failure admitted to our hospital were randomly divided into a continuous care group and a routine care group, 61 cases for each group. After discharge, the routine care group only gave regular discharge guidance; in addition, the continuous care group gave continuous care. The self-care ability and quality of life scores of the 2 groups before and 3 and 6 months after the treatment were observed and compared; and the re-admissionrates after 6 months’ nursing care were compared. Results There were no statistical differences in the scores ofMLHFQ and ESCAbetween the two groups before the treatment (P>0.05). After the nursing care,The scores of social restriction, physical limitation, symptoms, and emotions were significantly lower (all P<0.05), and the scores of self-care responsibility, self-concept, health knowledge, and self-care skills were higher after than before the nursing care in both groups, and were better in the continuous care group thanin the conventional care group (all P<0.05).The re-hospitalization rate was 6.56% in the continuous care group, and was 19.67% in the conventional care group (χ2=4.603 8, P=0.031 9). Conclusion Continuing care can improve the quality of life and self-care ability of patients with stable chronic heart failure, and reduce the readmissionrate, so it is worth for clinical application. Key words: Heart failure; Continuousnursing care; Stable period; Quality of life; Self-care ability