Abstract
Heart failure (HF) is a chronic condition requiring continuous self-care. Health literacy is increasingly recognized as a key factor of self-care behaviors in patients with chronic diseases. Recently, frailty in chronic diseases has also been associated with self-care behaviors. However, relationships among health literacy, frailty, and self-care in the HF population are not well understood. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to identify the impact of health literacy and frailty on self-care behaviors in patients with HF. Data were collected from 281 adults attending a cardiovascular outpatient clinic in Korea. Health literacy, frailty, and self-care behaviors were measured using Korean-validated instruments. The mean scores of health literacy and self-care behaviors were 8.89 (±3.44) and 31.49 (±5.38), respectively. The prevalence of frailty was around 26.3%. Health literacy was significantly associated with frailty and self-care behaviors. In a hierarchical linear regression analysis, health literacy was a significant determinant of self-care behaviors after adjusting for confounding variables, but frailty was not. Educational level was also a significant predictor of self-care behaviors. Our main findings showed that health literacy can facilitate improvements in HF self-care behaviors. Healthcare professionals should assess patients’ health literacy and educational backgrounds when designing self-management programs.
Highlights
Heart failure is the leading cause of mortality and healthcare costs worldwide [1]
Health literacy was significantly associated with frailty and self-care behaviors
This study aimed to investigate whether health literacy and frailty are determinants of self-care behaviors in patients with heart failure after adjusting for the patients’
Summary
Heart failure is the leading cause of mortality and healthcare costs worldwide [1]. It is a chronic progressive, irrevocable disease characterized by a heart’s functional or structural disorder that renders it unable to pump sufficient blood and oxygen [2]. Important management strategies to reduce health issues in patients with heart failure include self-care behaviors like regular exercise, a balanced diet, sodium control, and weight control [2,7,8,9]. Studies on patients with heart failure have focused on interventions for the patients and their families to improve self-care. Despite the positive health outcomes of self-care, many patients with heart failure still find it difficult to follow a self-care regimen [10]
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