Self-Care Practices of Primary Health Care Patients Diagnosed with Chronic Heart Failure: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Rosalia Santesmases-Masana, Luis González- de Paz, Elvira Hernández-Martínez-Esparza, Belchin Kostov and Maria Dolors Navarro-Rubio
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Rosalia Santesmases-Masana: School of Nursing, Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08025, Barcelona, Spain
Luis González- de Paz: Les Corts Primary Healthcare Center, Primary Healthcare Transversal Research Group, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Elvira Hernández-Martínez-Esparza: School of Nursing, Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08025, Barcelona, Spain
Belchin Kostov: Primary Healthcare Transversal Research Group, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Maria Dolors Navarro-Rubio: Patient Experience Department, Hospital Sant Joan de Deu, Esplugues del Llobregat, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Sant Cugat del Vallés, 08950 Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-16

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.

Keywords: heart failure; self-care practices; primary healthcare; health literacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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