Abstract
Chronic heart failure patients require self-care behaviors and active monitoring of signs and symptoms to prevent worsening. Most patients with this condition are attended in primary healthcare centers. This study aimed to evaluate the endorsement of and adherence to self-care behaviors in primary health care patients with chronic heart failure. We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional study. We randomly included chronic heart failure patients from 10 primary healthcare centers in the Barcelona metropolitan area (Spain). Patients completed the European Heart Failure Self-Care Behaviour Scale, a health literacy questionnaire. Differences between groups were studied using ANOVA tests. We included 318 patients with a mean age of 77.9 years, mild limitations in functional activity New York Heart Association scale (NYHA) II = 51.25%), and a low health literacy index of 79.6%. The endorsement of self-care behaviors was low in daily weighing (10.66%), contacting clinicians if the body weight increased (22.57%), and doing physical exercise regularly (35.58%). Patients with lower educational levels and a worse health literacy had a lower endorsement. The screening of individual self-care practices in heart failure patients might improve the clinician follow-up. We suggest that primary healthcare clinicians should routinely screen self-care behaviors to identify patients requiring a closer follow-up and to design and adapt rehabilitation programs to improve self-care.
Highlights
Heart failure is defined as “a structural and/or functional cardiac abnormality resulting in reduced cardiac output and/or elevated intracardiac pressures at rest or during stress” [1]
To determine the endorsement of self-care behaviors in PHC patients diagnosed with chronic heart failure, and to examine potential relationships between self-care practices and sociodemographic and clinical characteristics
We studied the endorsement of self-care behaviors in PHC patients with chronic heart failure
Summary
Heart failure is defined as “a structural and/or functional cardiac abnormality resulting in reduced cardiac output and/or elevated intracardiac pressures at rest or during stress” [1]. Heart failure affects the quality of life and the activities of daily living and reduces life expectancy [2]. The severity of heart failure is based on a scale of limitations in the functional physical activity [1]. Heart failure is considered stable when the symptoms and signs are unchanged for ≥1 month. Heart failure tends to worsen, and hospital admissions are frequent [1]. Around 26 million adults have heart failure
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