The purposes of this study were to describe heart failure patient perceptions regarding instructions received for following a low‐sodium diet and the benefits, barriers, and ease and frequency of following the diet. A total of 246 patients with heart failure referred from academic medical centers in the United States and Australia participated in the study. A subset of 145 patients provided 24‐hour urine samples for sodium excretion assessment. While most (80%) patients reported receiving recommendations to follow a low‐sodium diet, their recall of specific instructions was poor. Although the majority (75%) reported following a low‐sodium diet most or all of the time, 24‐hour urine sodium excretion indicated that only 25% of patients were adherent. Patients who reported being more adherent, however, had lower urine sodium excretion levels. Attitudes regarding difficulty in and perceived benefits of following the diet were not related to sodium excretion. Data on attitudes and barriers provided guidance for strategies to improve adherence.

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Background: Anxiety is common after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and has the potential to negatively affect physical and psychosocial recovery. There have been no cross-cultural comparisons of anxiety among AMI patients. Aims: To evaluate whether anxiety after AMI differs across five diverse countries and to determine whether an interaction between country, and sociodemographic and clinical variables contributes to variations in reporting anxiety. Methods and Results: A total of 912 individuals with confirmed AMI were enrolled in this prospective, comparative, cross-cultural study. Anxiety was assessed within 72 h of hospital admission using the Brief Symptom Inventory. The mean level of anxiety in the entire sample was 0.62"0.76, which is 44% higher than the normal mean level. Anxiety levels were not significantly different among the countries with the exception that patients in England reported lower levels of anxiety than those in the US (Ps0.03). However, this difference disappeared after controlling for sociodemographic variables on which the countries differed. Conclusion: Patients from each country studied experienced high anxiety after AMI. Even though various cultures were represented in this study, culture itself did not account for variations in anxiety after AMI. It appears that anxiety after AMI is a universal phenomenon.

Progress in Cardiovascular Nursing 7 4 Tsuyuki RT, McKelvie RS, Arnold JM, et al. Acute precipitants of congestive heart failure exacerbations.

Objective To analyze outcomes and risk factors of cardiovascular events in a metropolitan COVID-19 database, and to perform a subgroup analysis in African American populations to determine whether outcomes and risk factors are influenced by race. Design Retrospective cohort analysis from March 9, 2020 to June 20, 2020. Setting Population-based study in Louisville, KY, USA Participants 700 adult inpatients hospitalized with COVID-19. Interventions N/A Measurements and Main Results: Our cohort consisted of 126 patients (18%) with cardiovascular events and 574 patients without cardiovascular events. Patients with cardiovascular events had a much higher mortality rate than those without cardiovascular events (45.2% vs. 8.7%, p <0.001). There was no difference between African Americans and Whites regarding mortality (43.9% vs 46.3%, p =1) and length of stay for survivors (11 days vs. 9.5 days, p =0.301). Multiple logistics regression analysis suggested that male, race, lower SaO2/FiO2, higher serum potassium, lower serum albumin, and number of cardiovascular co-morbidities were highly associated with the occurrence of cardiovascular events in COVID-19 patients. Lower serum albumin and neoplastic/immune compromised diseases were highly associated with cardiovascular events for African American COVID-19 patients. SaO2/FiO2 ratio and cardiovascular comorbidity count were significantly associated with cardiovascular events in white patients. Conclusions : Cardiovascular events were prevalent and associated with worse outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Outcomes of cardiovascular events in African American and white COVID-19 patients were similar after propensity score matching analysis. There were common and unique risk factors for cardiovascular events in African American COVID-19 patients when compared with white patients.