Does Social Support Affect Self-Care Behavior in Patients with Heart Failure? A Descriptive Research

Objective: This study was conducted to examine the effect of perceived social support on self-care behavior of patients with heart failure.Methods: This descriptive study; It was conducted with 200 patients with heart failure hospitalized in the cardiology service of a university hospital between March and October 2022.The data of the study were collected using the "Demographic Data Form", The European Heart Failure Self-Care Behavior Scale (EHFScBs) and the "Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS).SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science for Windows) 22.0 package program was used to evaluate the data. Results:The mean age of the patients with heart failure who participated in the study was 64.97±11.56years.54% of the patients were over 65 years old, 53.5% were male, 65.5% were married, and 63% were primary/secondary school graduates.It was determined that the income of 62.5% of the patients was equal to the expenditure, 92% of them were not working and 84.5% of them lived in the urban area.The mean score of the perceived social support scale was found to be 49.53±11.75.The mean score of self-care behaviors was found to be 30.32±5.67.Conclusions: In our study, it was concluded that as the perceived social support of patients with HF increased, their self-care behaviors also increased.