Relationship of self-care behaviors with hospital readmission in people with heart failure

Aim: This study aimed to determine the relationship between self-care behaviors and readmission in people with heart failure.
People with heart failure are frequently hospitalized due to worsening symptoms. Admission to hospital reduces quality of life of patients, also imposes large costs for them. To control this disease, adherence to self-care behaviors is important.
In this descriptive analytical study, 245 heart failure patients with the history of readmission were recruited with convenience sampling method from Taleghani and Syedalshohada teaching hospitals of Urmia, in 2016. Data collection tool included self-care heart failure Index. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS.
Findings: Self-care mean score in participants was 45.59±7.6 and most patients had a moderate level of self-care behaviors. Pearson correlation coefficient showed a reverse statistically significant correlation between self-care score with the number of hospitalization (r=-223, p≤0.0001).
Self-care behaviors of the majority of patients was not favorable in terms of quality and there was a reverse correlation between self-care behaviors and readmission, It is suggested further investigating the factors affecting self-care behaviors and taking actions to deal with these factors.