The effect of supportive interventions on resilience and quality of life among family caregivers of people with advanced heart failure

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of supportive interventions on resiliency components and quality of life among family caregivers of people with advanced heart failure.
Background. Advanced heart failure is a costly, progressive and chronic disease that reduces resilience and quality of life among family caregivers.

In a randomized clinical trial study that was conducted as a before-after design with control group and follow-up one month after intervention. One hundred family caregivers of people with advanced heart failure, admitted to Shahid Rajaie Cardiovascular and Medical Research Center, were randomly assigned into experimental and control group. The family support interventions package included participation in group training workshops for 6 sessions (2 sessions/week in three consecutive weeks) for the experimental group. Resilience Scale (Connor-Davidson) and Quality of Life (SF-36) questionnaire were used to collect the data, before, after and one month after intervention. Data were analyzed in statistical software SPSS 23 using statistical tests related to the distribution of variables including Chi-square, Fisher, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney test, and independent and paired t-test.

 At baseline, the mean score of resilience and the overall score of quality of life showed no statistically significant difference between the groups. After intervention, there was a statistically significant difference in terms of the mean score of resilience between the experimental (64.06±11) and control (48.34±16.23) group (P<0.05). Also, the overall score of quality of life after intervention was statistically significant between the experimental (70±12.91) and control (50.82±17.73) group (P<0.05). The results of paired t-test showed that one month after the end of the intervention, in the experimental group, the mean score of resilience (63.08 ± 10.15) and the overall score of quality of life (69.82±12.70) remained constant, indicating the sustainability of the effect of interventions after one month (P>0.05).

 As part of a holistic program, the results of this study can be a guide to setting up a centralized unit for the education and support of family caregivers of people with chronic heart disease, a unit in which, in addition to social support and mental health education, their needs in terms of knowledge of the disease and participation in the care of their patients would be met.