Relationship between Disease Knowledge and Self-care Adherence among Heart Failure Patients at King Abdulaziz University Hospital

Abstract

Backgrounds: Heart failure (HF) is a progressive syndrome characterized bycomplicated therapeutic regimens and repeated hospitalizations. HF has turnedinto a global epidemic demonstrating serious mortality and morbidity. This studyaimed to assess the relationship between disease knowledge and self-careadherence among adult HF patients at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH).Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive correlational design was utilized. Patientswere recruited from outpatient clinic at KAUH in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Aconvenience sample of 208 HF patients. The Dutch Heart Failure Knowledge Scale(DHFS) and the European Heart Failure Self-Care Behavior Scale (EHFSCBs) wereused to measure the main study outcomes. Participants were recruited from heartfailure outpatient clinics at KAUH from January 31 – May 17, 2021. Results: 63.9%of participants were male, 49% were over 61 years old, and 30.8% of theparticipants were not educated. 55.8% of the participants had an adequate level ofknowledge about HF disease and 57.2% had a good level of self-care adherence. Themean total HF knowledge score DHFS was 8.58±3.08 out of 15 and the self-careadherence score EHFSCBs was 28.97 ±5.61out of 60. A significant positive moderatecorrelation existed between disease knowledge and self-care adherence.Conclusion: Disease knowledge was adequate in more than half of the participants,and self-care adherence was good. This study has shown a relationship betweendisease knowledge and self-care adherence, which means that a high level of HFknowledge was associated with improved self-care adherence.