Determinants of Self-care Behaviors in Community-Dwelling Patients With Heart Failure

Abstract

Common self-care maintenance behaviors included taking medication as prescribed (95%), seeking physician guidance (80%), and following sodium dietary restrictions (70%). These behaviors were influenced by enabling characteristics such as psychological status (P = .030), ethnicity (P = .048), and comorbidity (P = .023). A unique finding was that self-care maintenance behaviors were significantly lower in aboriginal participants. The predisposing characteristic of self-efficacy influenced self-maintenance behaviors (P = .0002), overall self-care (P = .04) and number of hospital admissions (P < .0001). Higher overall self-care scores, measured by the summative Self-care Heart Failure Index score was correlated with fewer hospital admissions (P = .019).