Study of the Self-Care Status and Factors Related to It in Heart Failure Patients

One of the most common chronic diseases in the world is heart failure, which imposes a lot of costs on health systems every year. One of the important ways to control heart failure is self-care. The purpose of the current study was to examine the self-care status and factors affecting it in patients with heart failure. In this descriptive-analytical study, a total of 248 eligible patients with heart failure referred to the therapeutic and educational center were studied. The selection of samples was done by gradual sampling method. The data collection tool included a demographic information questionnaire and information about the disease and heart failure self-care index. Data analysis was done by descriptive statistics and t-tests, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and ANOVA in SPSS-21 software. The average and standard deviation of the self-care score of the patients participating in this study was 26.44±13.13 and just 4.4% of them had a favorable self-care behavior. The most favorable state of self-care was regarding the management of self-care. There was a statistically significant relationship between self-care with education (p < 0.0001), age (p < 0.0001), comorbidities (p < 0.0001), and marital status (p = 0.003). Since the majority of people in the study had unfavorable self-care, it is suggested that nurses pay attention to self-care predictors in the care and education programs of patients with heart failure.