Factors associated with caregivers’ contribution to self-care in heart failure

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the caregiver’s contribution to self-care in heart failure and the predictor variables of this contribution. Method: a cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study, with the participation of 140 dyads (patients and caregivers). The contribution to self-care was assessed using the Caregiver Contribution to Self-Care of Heart Failure Index. Caregivers and patients were interviewed separately to obtain the data. Multiple linear regressions were used to verify predictor variables of caregiver contribution. Results: the mean score for contribution to maintenance self-care was 62.7 (SD=7.1), for management, 62.9 (SD=20.4) and for confidence was 63.3 (SD=22.1). The variables number of patient’s medications, caregiver being related to the patient, social perception of caregiver, health-related quality of life of the patient and caregiver’s confidence in contributing to self-care were predictors of caregiver’s contribution to maintenance or management self-care. Conclusion: the caregiver’s contribution was insufficient. The social support perceived by the caregiver, the type of relationship the caregiver to the patient, the number of medications used by the patient, as well as the caregiver’s confidence in contributing to self-care are variables that should be considered to assess the risk of insufficient contribution of the caregiver.

Contributing to self‐care of a person with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A qualitative study of the experiences of family caregivers

“…Even when family caregivers perform behaviours on behalf of the patients, especially when older or in an advanced stage of the disease, those behaviours are considered contributions to patient self-care as they are aimed at the care of the patients (Vellone et al, 2019). Family caregiver contribution to patient self-care has been described in several chronic conditions, such as heart failure (Durante et al, 2019;Wilson et al, 2022), ostomy (Giordano et al, 2022) and in multimorbidity (Iovino et al, 2021), but, to our knowledge, has not yet been investigated in COPD.…”