Effect of educational intervention through group discussion on self-care behavior in the heart failure patients

Introduction: Self-care is a process for maintaining health by improving methods, monitoring symptoms and managing symptoms when they occur. The aim of present study was to survey the effect of the educational intervention on self-care behavior in the heart failure patients             .

Methods: This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial in heart failure patients which conducted in Imam Ali Hospital in Kermanshah in 2016. Totally, 80 samples were enrolled and For randomized allocation of 40 patients with heart failure to intervention and control groups, permutation block sampling was implemented. Data were collected by demographic questionnaires and European Heart Failure Self-care Behavior Scale. Patients in the intervention group received 8 consecutive one-hour training sessions by the researcher .SPSS-22 and R-3.2.3 software were used to analyze the data.

Results: The results of covariance analysis showed that educational intervention through group discussion increased the level of self-care behavior in patients with heart failure in the intervention group. After intervention, there was a significant difference between the two intervention and control groups in terms of general self-care score (P <0.001). The mean and standard deviation of self-care status in the intervention group before and after the intervention was 25.47 and 4.98, respectively, after the intervention, 35.33 and 4.99 (mean lower, better self-care status), while Self-care status in the control group was not significant

Conclusion: Educational intervention through group discussion is an effective way to improve the level of self-care in patients with heart failure, and therefore, it can be considered as a major rehab program in order to improve patients' condition