Key result
Limited clinician capacity to support HFpEF self-management drives patient disempowerment and loss of control.
Why the study?
To understand the self-management experiences of people with HFpEF, their caregivers, and the healthcare professionals who support them.
What are the self-management experiences of people with HFpEF, their caregivers, and healthcare professionals?
Systematic Review (n=257)
What are the self-management experiences of people with HFpEF, their caregivers, and healthcare professionals?
Tailored interventions and adequate support are required to optimize self-management and empower patients with HFpEF and their caregivers.
Demands HCP capacity building for HFpEF self-management; extends qualitative synthesis to guide tailored interventions.
Aims: To understand the self-management experiences of people with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), their caregivers and the health care professionals (HCPs) who support them. Methods and Results: A systematic review of qualitative and mixed methods literature, published to July 2023. 4560 abstracts describing patients, caregivers, and HCPs experiences of self-management strategies for HFpEF were identified and screened. Of the 349 full texts identified we included seven papers from three data sources (in 47 patients, 81 caregivers, 129 HCPs) in our final dataset. Key theories, methods and results were extracted, reviewed and synthesised using meta-study techniques.We identified that HFpEF is difficult for HCPs to diagnose and difficult for patients and their caregivers to understand. Patients and caregivers can struggle to access support, which can lead to a 'cycle of decline' over time in patients' outcomes /quality of life. However, self-management can be optimised with adequate support, when the burdens of understanding HFpEF and self-management are acknowledged, when personalised goals are set, and feedback is provided to optimise individualised self-management. Conclusion: The limited capacity of HCPs to support HFpEF patients and caregivers to develop effective self-management understanding and practice can lead to disempowerment and loss of control. Tailored interventions are required to maximise HCP enablement of patients and their caregivers to develop flexible and sustainable self-management strategies. Future research must specify and evaluate the skillset that HCPs require to provide individualised care that is tailored to the holistic needs of people self-managing HFpEF within the local care context.
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Frost et al. (2025) conducted a systematic review in Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) (n=257). Self-management strategies was evaluated on Self-management experiences. A systematic review of 7 qualitative papers (257 participants) found that limited healthcare professional capacity to support HFpEF self-management leads to patient disempowerment and loss of control.
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