ASSESSMENT OF THE LEVEL OF STRESS AMONG PATIENTS WITH HEART FAILURE IN SULAIMANI CARDIAC HOSPITAL

BackgroundLife events and experiences eventually lead to stress. Stress also activates one’s process of thinking and autonomic arousal level. One of the complications of heart failure is coronary artery disease, which can also be caused by stress and behaviours like being extremely hardworking toward achieving one’s goals. ObjectivesTo detect the stress levels of heart failure patients, and to find out the association between socio-demographic characteristics and level of stress. Materials and MethodsQuantitative descriptive design (non-probability purposive sample). The sample was the heart failure admitted to Sulaimani Cardiac Hospital. A total of 200 heart failure patients were selected by non‑probability sampling methods. The standardized Perceived Stress Scale tool was used for the study. ResultsAlmost half (50.5%) of the sample was between 62 to 77 years. More than half were males, widows, illiterate with low economic status, and lived with their family members (65.5, 53%, 61%, 65.5%, and 68%) respectively. Less than half (48%) of them were in class III of heart failure according to the New York Heart Association classification.  Most of the sample were from urban areas (91%), Nearly half of the sample (47.5%) had a high level, (51%) had moderate stress, and only (1.5%) of them had low stress. Also, the present study revealed a significant association among all items of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and levels of stress except the economic state, marital state, and resident at the p-value of 0.05. ConclusionThis research demonstrated an approach to developing more coping strategies to reduce stress among heart failure patients. So, this study recommended that the medical staff who work in the coronary care unit should involve themselves in dealing with the psychosocial needs of those patients and take measures to plan to solve their problems, especially stress, through teamwork.