The Effect of Self-management-based Discharge Planning on Anxiety, Depression, and Re-admission in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure

Heart failure (HF) is a chronic progressive syndrome. Patients with heart failure often experience poor self-management, anxiety, depression, poor quality of life, and frequent readmission.
The present study was performed with aim to explore the effect of self-management-based discharge planning on anxiety, depression, and readmission in patients with heart failure.
This quasi-experimental study was performed on 80 patients with heart failure admitted to two teaching hospitals of Zahedan in 2019-2020. The participants were randomly assigned to two intervention and control groups. The self-management-based discharge planning was performed for the intervention group. The intervention group was followed-up by calling 2-3 days after discharge and then every week in the first month and every two weeks in the second and third months. Data were collected using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and a readmission frequency and duration form. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16). P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
The results showed a significant differences in the mean score of anxiety and depression over time (p<0.001) and in the intervention and control groups (p<0.001). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the readmission duration (p=0.052) and readmission frequency (p=0.801).
Implications for Practice: Self-management-based discharge planning reduces depression and anxiety of patients with heart failure. Given the ease of clinical implementation of self-management-based discharge planning, its low costs, and availability for clinical staff, it can be considered an effective method to reduce depression and anxiety in these patients.