Prevalence and Predictors of Adherence to Self-Care Practices among Heart Failure Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Aims: Congestive heart failure affects about five million Americans and has become an increasingly frequent reason for hospital admission during the last two decades. It represents a significant health problem. The aim of this study was to enumerate the frequency of self-care and to study the factors affecting adherence to self-care in patients with heart failure.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Cardiology and Department of Medicine in three public sector hospitals of Karachi, between March 2020 and September 2020.

Methodology: In this study, 187 heart failure patients from three hospitals were surveyed with consent. Demographic details of the participants were also collected, which included gender, mean age, BMI, education, living and marital status, smoking history, an ejection fraction <40, cancer, chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, atrial fibrillation, and coronary artery bypass graft procedure in patients. The data were analyzed through SPSS v. 25.0 using an adherence scale. A cumulative score of ≥32/40 (80%) was termed as good adherence. In an individual question, a score of four or five and zero to three inclusive was taken as good and poor adherence, respectively.

Results: It was found that patients who were not educated (65.8%, n=123), with age > 65years (67.4%, n=126) and with no history of coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (94.1%, n=176) had a significantly bad impact on heart-failure self-care (P-value<0.05). Good adherence was seen in 16.6% of the patients (n=31). Hence, most of the patients were non-adherent.

Conclusion: There is an urgent need to counsel patients regarding heart failure self-care for a better prognosis of the disease. Government and doctors together should take part in enlightening the issue.