Predictors of self-care in persons with heart failure

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to test a model of individual patient characteristics, covering symptom severity, comorbidity, social support, education, age, socioeconomic status, and gender, derived from Connelly's Model of Self-Care in Chronic Illness as predictors of self-care in heart failure. DESIGN: This was a nonexperimental correlational study. SETTING: The study took place in 6 hospitals in southern California. PATIENTS: The study included 209 patients diagnosed with heart failure by their physicians. The typical study participant was age 73 years, Class III, married, grade-school educated, and earning an income of less than $20,000 per year. The genders were almost equally represented. OUTCOME MEASURE: Self-care was measured by the Evaluating the Change subscale of the Self-Management of Heart Failure Instrument. RESULTS: The model of 7 variables, analyzed by using multiple regression analysis, explained 10.3% of the variance in self-cart. Only 2 of the variables were significant predictors of self-care: education (P = .009) and symptom severity (P = .046); 89.7% of the variance remained unexplained. CONCLUSIONS: Persons with higher education and those who are symptomatic may be more likely to engage in self-care than those who are poorly educated or asymptomatic. Further research is needed to confirm these results and identify other predictors of self-care.