The significance of informal caregivers in information management from the perspective of heart failure patients.

Aims And Objectives: To explore patients' perspectives on the significance of informal carers in their information management.

Background: Being well informed is considered a prerequisite for the ability of heart failure patients to manage their lives at home. Developing knowledge about the informal caregiver's role in patient information management is important, that is, accurate information adapted to the individual level of comprehension.

Severity of illness - implications for information management by patients.

As more and more people are living with chronic diseases, there is a greater need for patients to have access to accurate and reliable information about health in general and their own health care in particular. In this study we explored how patients suffering from chronic heart insufficiency who needed post-hospital home nursing care assessed their need for health information and their use of the health information they received. Fourteen patients were interviewed in their homes one week after their discharge.