The roles of health literacy and social support in improving adherence to self-care behaviours among older adults with heart failure

Aim: To describe the associations between health literacy, social support and self-care behaviours in older adults with heart failure. Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study. Methods: A total of 252 older adults were recruited from a tertiary care hospital from September 2018-February 2019. Structured questionnaires and medical record reviews were used for data collection. Two steps of hierarchical regression analysis were employed to determine the predictors of self-care behaviours. Results: Health literacy (beta = 0.27,p < .001) and social support (beta = 0.32,p < .001) were significant determinants of self-care behaviours in older adults with heart failure. Together, they explained 22% of the variance in self-care behaviours. Conclusion: Health literacy and perceived social support were positively associated with self-care behaviours among older heart failure patients. Our findings can help health professionals develop heart failure self-care interventions to enhance health literacy skills and social support for older adults.