Abstract:
Nowadays, heart failure (HF) related morbidity and mortality rate is increasing globally.
Younger populations happen to be more affected by HF in sub- Saharan African than the
western countries. Even though medications, low sodium diet, regular exercise, and weight
monitoring are essential to control heart failure symptoms and its exacerbation, poor adherence to these self-care recommendations is contributing to an increased in hospitalization,
morbidity, and mortality. Therefore, this study aimed to assess heart failure patients’ adherence to self-care recommendations and its associated factors.
Methods
A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 310 adult heart failure patients
attending Gondar University referral hospital from February to May 2017. The participants
were selected by systematic random sampling technique. Data were collected through face
to face interview and from the patients’ medical records. The data were analyzed using
SPSS version 20. A binary logistic regression model was used to check the effect of different
factors on the patients’ adherence level.
Results
Of 310 study participants only 22.3% (95% CI, 17.4%-26.8%) of heart failure patients
reported good adherence to their self-care recommendations. Adherence to self-care recommendation was positively associated with being male in gender (AOR = 2.34, 95% CI:
1.18–4.62), good level of heart failure knowledge (AOR = 2.49, 95% CI: 1.276–4.856) and
free from chronic comorbid diseases (AOR = 2.57, 95% CI: 1.28–5.14).
Conclusion
Overall, heart failure patients’ adherence to self-care recommendations is poor and selective. Being male in gender, had no chronic comorbidity, and a good level of heart failure
knowledge were positively associated with adherence to self-care recommendations. It is
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211768 February 7, 2019 1 / 13
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OPEN ACCESS
Citation: Seid MA, Abdela OA, Zeleke EG (2019)
Adherence to self-care recommendations and
associated factors among adult heart failure
patients. From the patients’ point of view. PLoS
ONE 14(2): e0211768. https://doi.org/10.1371/
journal.pone.0211768
Editor: Amir H. Pakpour, Qazvin University of
Medical Sciences, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Received: August 23, 2018
Accepted: January 20, 2019
Published: February 7, 2019
Copyright: © 2019 Seid et al. This is an open
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are
within the manuscript.
Funding: This research work was part of a Master
thesis, funded by the University of Gondar (http://
www.uog.edu.et/en/) through the postgraduate
