Factors affecting self-care in heart failure patients: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: Heart failure is a cardiovascular disease with a high incidence in the world and Indonesia as well. This disease must get serious attention because it results in high mortality rates and has a broad and long-term impact on patients with heart failure. The high recurrence rate, rehospitalization, and patients' poor quality of life are influenced, one of them, by the self-care behavior of patients, considering that heart failure is a progressive and chronic disease. In practice, implementation of self-care behaviors in people living with heart failure is poor. This study analyzes the factors influencing self-care for heart failure patients.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that involved 100 heart failure patients taken from August to October 2020. Self-care was measured using the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) questionnaire. The chi-square statistical test determines the relationship between the factors that influence self-care.

Results: The results showed that there was a significant relationship between education (p 0.00), marital status (p 0.005), occupation (p 0.00), NYHA class (p 0.00), and patient age (p 0.01) with self-care maintenance. There was no relationship between gender (p 0.30), comorbidity (p 0.21), and duration of heart failure (p 0.11).

Conlusions: Education, marital status, occupation, NYHA class, and age significantly influence self-care in heart failure patients, while gender, comorbidity, and disease duration do not. Targeted interventions are needed to improve self-care and reduce rehospitalization.