Self Care Behaviors among Elderly with Chronic Heart Failure and Related Factors

Self Care Behaviors (SCB) is one of the most important challenges in controlling readmission and improving the elderly patients outcomes. The aims of this study were to describe the SCB among elderly with heart failure and to assess relationships between SCB, demographic characteristics, age-related characteristics and clinical characteristics. In this cross sectional study, 184 elderly (age 60) with heart failure were selected with convenience sampling from 4 teaching hospitals. To assess SCB, the European Heart Failure Self Care Behavior Scale was used. Its validity and reliability were confirmed (CVI = 0.97 and α = 0.74). Data was collected from patients' medical record and by interviews. The highest percentage of behaviors not performing properly (score > 2), were related to self reported exercise (96.2%), receiving a flu shot (89.7%) and weight monitoring (80.5%), respectively. There was significant relationship between SCB and cognitive impairment (p < 0.001), serum sodium level (p < 0.001), charlson co-morbidity Index (p = 0.001), ejection fraction (p = 0.002), visual impairment (p = 0.002), sleep disorders (p = 0.003), poly-pharmacy (p = 0.004), hearing impairment (p = 0.012) and systolic blood pressure (p = 0.049). Significant relationship between SCB and age-related characteristics suggests the need to design both supportive and preventive programs among elderly with heart failure.