Self-care behaviors and related factors in patients with heart failure reffering to medical & educational center of heart in Rasht.

Heart failure is considered to be one of the most common chronic diseases in the world which puts high expenses on health care systems. In order to control heart failure there are a lot of ways; self care is one of them. This survey has been conducted with the aim of studying self-care behaviors and related factors in patients with CHF. This cross sectional study assessed the associations between self- care behaviors and demographic variables in 33 patients who referred to medical & educational center of heart in Rasht city. Data collection instrument included questionnaire covering demographic characteristics and European questionnaire of EHFSCB. Data collected were analyzed using one – way ANOVA، Kruskal Wallis and independent t- tests in SPSS (version 15). The mean age of individuals was 69. 9 ± 19. 9، of which %60. 6 were woman، %57. 6 were married، %57. 6 were illiterate، %66. 7 had poor financial conditions and %90. 9 suffered from other chronic diseases that had the highest percentages such as hypertension %25، diabetes %18. 7. Also the mean of disease duration was 2. 5 ± 1. 6 month. The mean of self-care score was 37. 9 ± 5. 4 and only %6. 1 of individuals had good self-care. The best self-care behavior was related to taking drugs according to doctor’s recommendation، going on low-salt diet & taking enough rest with mean score of 1. 09، 1. 72 1 and 1. 81 respectively. The least self-care behavior taken was daily weighing، regular exercise and injecting flu vaccination (mean of 4. 75، 4. 72 and 4. 72 respectively. Considering a low percent of individuals who had good self-care behavior، it is recommended that more assessed and proper intervention be taken to confront these factors.