Evaluation of Preventive Self-care Behaviors and Its Related Factors in Patients with Heart Failure

Background: Self-care behaviors are the most important way to prevent frequent hospitalization, improve the quality of life, and reduce mortality in patients suffering from heart failure.

Aims: To assess the preventive self-care behaviors and its associated factors in heart failure patients in Kerman teaching hospitals.

Place and Duration of Study: South-East of Iran, Cardiology Clinics of Kerman teaching hospitals from August 2014 to January 2015.

Methodology: This cross-sectional study evaluated preventive self-care behaviors in 150 patients suffering from heart failure by a valid and reliable questionnaire and checklist. Subjects were selected by simple random sampling among patients with heart failure from Cardiology Clinics of Kerman teaching hospitals. The Data was analyzed by using of SPSS, version 20.

Results: Most (68.5%) of the subjects were moderate at complying with medication regimen (mean=54.41±8.41) and 78.3% were poor at non-medication regimen (mean=61.04±7.21). Control pulse was poor in the majority of them (91.5%). There was a significant relationship between total mean self-care score and age (p=0.05), marital status (p= 0.03), education (p=0.009), the number of hospitalization (p= 0.02), NYHA functional class (p= 0.002) and monthly income (p= 0.003).

Conclusion: Due to poor self-care in patients suffering from heart failure and its relationship with some personal factors, it is better to plan for training these patients based on their needs.