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Clinical Application of Phase Angle and BIVA Z-Score Analyses in Patients Admitted to an Emergency Department with Acute Heart Failure
Published on: June 30, 2023
Illness representation of patients with systolic heart failure
Candace C Cherrington1, Thomas N Lawson, Karen B Clark
1Wright State University, Miami Valley College of Nursing & Health, Dayton, OH 45435, USA. candace.cherrington@wright.edu
Abstract:
Studies have shown that individuals influence their health outcomes, both positively and negatively, through their illness representation. To date, no studies describe the illness representation of persons with systolic heart failure, a significant contributor of morbidity and mortality in older adults. The purpose of this study was to describe illness representation in heart failure. Twenty-two subjects with New York Heart Association class II or III systolic heart failure were recruited at a university-based heart failure clinic. Illness representation was measured using the revised Illness Perception Questionnaire. The means on each of the 9 subscales were found to be significantly different from the neutral point of 3. The results suggest that participants believed that their heart failure was a chronic, cyclic disease with serious consequences that they could control through treatment. In addition, participants believed that they understood their heart failure and did not have a negative affective response to their heart failure.
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