A Dyadic Approach to Managing Heart Failure With Confidence

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Psychology
• Sociology

Background:

• Heart failure (HF) self-care research predominantly focuses on patients, overlooking crucial family caregiver involvement.
• Self-care confidence is vital for effective HF self-management and patient outcomes.
• No prior research has explored self-care confidence within the patient-caregiver dyadic context.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify individual and dyadic factors influencing self-care confidence in heart failure (HF) care dyads.
• To understand the determinants of self-care confidence from both patient and caregiver perspectives.

Main Methods:

• Utilized multilevel modeling to account for the interdependence within dyadic data.
• Analyzed data from 329 Italian heart failure (HF) dyads, including spousal and adult child caregivers.

Main Results:

• Both patients and caregivers reported suboptimal self-care confidence levels, with caregivers slightly more confident.
• Higher confidence in both patients and caregivers correlated with better relationship quality and caregiver mental health.
• Patient confidence was linked to female gender, nonspousal dyads, poor caregiver physical health, and low care strain; caregiver confidence was associated with patient emotional quality of life and caregiver social support.

Conclusions:

• Emphasizes the necessity of a dyadic approach in heart failure (HF) self-care research and practice.
• Highlights the importance of addressing the needs of both patients and caregivers to improve overall outcomes.
• Supports interventions that strengthen the dyadic relationship and support systems for enhanced HF self-care.