Palliative care needs in patients with severe and chronic heart failure and their influencing factors

Abstract

Objective To explore the palliative care needs in patients with severe and chronic heart failure (CHF) and their influencing factors. Methods Totally 110 severe CHF patients hospitalized in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of a ClassⅢ Grade A hospital in Harbin from June 2016 to October 2017 were selected by convenient sampling, and investigated with the general information questionnaire, Palliative Care Outcome Scale (POS) , Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) . Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors to the palliative care needs in severe CHF patients. Results The POS score of the 110 severe CHF patients was (19.01±4.20) . Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the patient's course of disease, cardiac function, number of comorbidities, anxiety and depression were the influencing factors to the palliative care needs in severe CHF patients (P<0.05) . Conclusions Severe CHF patients have higher palliative care needs. Medical and nursing workers should take palliative care measures as early as possible according to the actual situation of patients to improve the patient's quality of life. Key words: Heart failure; Anxiety; Depression; Palliative care; Influencing factors