Evaluating the Self-care Behaviors in Patients with Heart Failure

Background & Objectives: Self-care behaviors are essential in helping patients suffering from heart failure to deal with their illness problems. With this regard, encouraging patients to participate in and take the responsibility of performing the proper self-care behavior can lead to complication management. The current study aimed to examine the self-care abilities in patients with heart failure. Materials & Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in ۲۰۱۴ employing ۱۲۱ patients (admitted to Fatemeh Alzahra hospital in Sari, Iran) suffering from heart failure with at least ۱۸ years of age. Data were collected by a standard self-care behavior questionnaire (European heart failure self-care behavior) which includes twelve likert questions scored from completely agree to completely disagree. The data were analyzed by T-TEST and ANOVA using SPSS version ۱۶ software. Results: Among the four questions intended to measure self-care ability in patients with heart failure, the best self-care behaviors were found to be taking medications as prescribed (Mean=۱.۳۰) and following a low-salt diet (Mean=۲.۰۹), respectively. Additionally, the poorest behaviors were shown to be fluid intake restriction, (Mean=۳), flu vaccination (Mean=۴.۴۷), and daily weighting (Mean=۴.۶۳). Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, training the patients on selfcare behaviors and highlighting its necessity seems essential; however, developing such programs will certainly require an active therapeutic team.