Social support and self-care of patients with heart failure.

Background: Social support can influence treatment adherence of patients with chronic illnesses, which may explain the positive effects of social support on heart failure (HF) outcomes.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of social support among patients with HF, we examined whether aspects of social support were associated with self-care, including medication adherence, dietary adherence, and HF symptom monitoring functions.

Methods: We recruited 74 patients with HF from cardiology clinics of a Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a university-affiliated hospital, and tested the relationships between social support and the patients' self-care.

Results: Consistent with previous research in older adults, family members, especially spouses, were often involved in the medical care of patients with chronic HF and provided a range of levels of support to patients. Self-care was generally poor, as measured across several self-care domains. Perceived social support was moderately associated with relatively better self-reported medication and dietary adherence, and other aspects of self-care such as daily weighing.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that a relatively higher level of self-care is an important correlate of social support and may explain how social support influences HF outcomes. This study also suggests that family members should play a greater part in clinical care focused on improving self-care.