Self-care behavior of outpatients with chronic heart failure treated at Son La Provincial General Hospital

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the current status of self-care behavior of chronic heart failure patients treated as outpatients at Son La Provincial General Hospital in 2024. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 250 heart failure patients from December 2023 to August 2024 at the Cardiology Clinic - Son La Provincial General Hospital. Using the Self-care of heart failure index (SCHFI) self-care behavior questionnaire. Results:The average self-care scores of heart failure patients in maintenance care; care management; and care confidence were 61.38 ± 13.65 points; 62.46 ± 11.65 points; 62.04 ± 12.55 points, respectively. The percentage of patients achieving self-care practice in the three areas was 58.8%; 52.4%; 41.2%, respectively. Conclusion: Patients’ self-care practices were limited in all three areas: Maintenance of care, Management of care and Confidence in care, of which the lowest was in the area of confidence in care (especially 21% of patients were not confident in complying with care to avoid worsening symptoms of heart failure). Health care workers need to guide patients on self-care practices, focusing on weak and missing content such as: self-monitoring of weight, exercise, disease prevention, need to contact doctor or nurse when seeing swelling in both legs, fatigue