Factors associated with caregivers' contribution to self-care in heart failure.
Ana Maria Miranda Martins Wilson, Glauber Silva Mendes de Almeida, Bruna de Cassia Ferreira Dos Santos and 3 others
PMID 35976358WHAT IT FOUND
In this sample, caregivers of people with heart failure scored below 70 on contribution to self-care.
Nurse follow-up should assess caregiver social support, relationship to patient, patient medication count and confidence.
Key findings
01Mean caregiver contribution scores were 62.69 for maintenance self-care, 62.85 for management self-care and 63.25 for confidence, each below the 70-point threshold the paper treats as adequate.
02Higher caregiver contribution to maintenance self-care was associated with more medications used by the patient, caregiver being spouse, child or parent, and greater perceived social support.
03Higher caregiver contribution to management self-care was associated with worse patient physical health-related quality of life, greater perceived social support, and greater caregiver confidence.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study looked at one point in time, so it cannot show that more medications, social support, caregiver relationship, patient quality of life or caregiver confidence caused higher caregiver contribution. Participants came from specialized cardiology services in São Paulo and were recruited by convenience, so caregivers in other settings may differ. The paper used a 70-point cut-off to call self-care insufficient, but it says there is no empirical basis for this interpretation. The regression models reported R2 values of 0.404 and 0.439, with adjusted R2 values of 0.251 and 0.282, so they did not explain all variation in caregiver contribution.
Declared interests
This study was financed in part by CAPES, Finance Code 001, Brazil. No other conflicts of interest are reported in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these associations as proof that adding medications, changing caregiver relationship, or increasing social support will improve caregiver contribution. The study measured existing relationships at one time point and cannot show cause.