engleski

Knowledge and self-care behaviours of patients hospitalised for acutely decompensated chronic heart failure: a neverending work in progress

BACKGROUND: To assess inpatient behaviors toward HF medications and self-care measures in the setting of acutely decompensated chronic heart failure (ADHF) prior to discharge from a tertiary clinical center. METHODS: Twenty patients with ADHF were provided an educational HF booklet and completed a 20-item questionnaire before discharge. FINDINGS: The mean age of patients was 70±11.8 years and 85% were male. Mean dyspnea per VAS scale prior to discharge was 2.9/10 points. Shortness of breath and leg edema were the most bothersome HF symptoms in 60% of patients. Forty percent of patients reported they feel they are taking too many medications for HF while 65% thought these medications cause them too many side effects. However, all patients reported that they would take as many HF medications as needed to treat their disease. Nearly half of patients (9/20) reported that financing and out-of-pocket costs for HF medications impose a significant financial burden on them. Up- titration of HF medications, as self-reported, did not occur in 70% of a patient during the period of last 12 months while 45% of patients were hospitalized due to HF at least once during the previous year. In terms of self-care, 40%, 75%, and 70% of patients reported they are regularly monitoring their weight, blood pressure, and salt or fluid intake at home, respectively. More than two- thirds of patients revealed they are not educated about the self-titration of diuretics at home. Patients identified antihypertensives and diuretics as the most important drugs for HF management while 50% of them would remove either diuretic or statin if they could omit one medication. DISCUSSION: Patient knowledge and self-care incentives regarding heart failure management were insufficient in several domains. Therefore, more educational interventions geared towards patients with ADHF are urgently needed to improve self-care behaviors thus potentially impacting relevant clinical outcomes.

chronic heart failure ; heart failure ; acute decompensated HF ; self-management ; behaviours ; patients

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 754936