Study of the effect of partnership care model on the quality of life in patients with heart failure

Heart failure is one of the most important and prevalent diseases, and still one of the major problems of health care systems in spite of the medical advances. Today, the promotion of the quality of life in heart failure patients is one of the objectives of the nursing care programs. In this line, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of partnership care model on the quality of life in patients with heart failure. \ In the present clinical trial in 2010, 90 patients with heart failure hospitalized in Kerman University of Medical Sciences affiliated coronary care units were selected using accessible-sampling method and were randomly divided into two groups of 45 participants each as the experimental and the control groups. To evaluate the quality of life as a dependent variable, the standard quality-of-life questionnaire for heart failure patients, including 22 questions on the three major dimensions of the quality of life (physical, mental and socioeconomic), was applied. The intervention was implemented during three months according to the partnership care model in the experimental group. Data were analyzed by SPSS18 software using descriptive statistics, independent and paired t-tests and the variance analysis. There was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of the mean quality of life (from 60.11±10.7 to 35.43±8.6 in the experimental and 45.63±7.3 to 57.42±11.9 in the control group), as well as the associated dimensions including the physical, psychological, and socioeconomic aspects (p<0.05). The study findings demonstrated a significant improvement in the mean quality of life scores in all the three dimensions in the experimental compared to the control group; the application of the mentioned model is, therefore, recommended for the care and treatment of patients with heart failure.