Knowledge, Attitude, Self-care Practice and Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among Heart Failure Patients in a Malaysian Tertiary Hospital

Heart failure (HF) has been associated with poor morbidity and survival despite advancement in its medical therapy. Poor knowledge, self-care practice and adherence to therapies which lead to poor disease outcomes have been previously reported. However, knowledge, attitude, self-care practice and HRQoL of Malaysian HF population have yet been described. This baseline information is crucial in designing educational programs aimed at improving adherence to therapies hence optimizing clinical outcomes. This single-centred, cross-sectional study utilizing self-administered, validated questionnaire involving 125 randomly selected HF patients found that most study subjects have moderate knowledge, attitude and self-care practice with good HRQoL. Weak and inverse correlations were found between age and knowledge and attitude scores. Subjects with NYHA Class I had significantly poorer knowledge level compared to those in other classes and female subjects had significantly better attitude compared to male subjects. Knowledge score was also found to be weakly but significantly correlated to attitude and self-care practice scores suggesting that improving knowledge among these patients can improve attitude and self-care practice. This study supports the need for continuous and individualized educational programs to improve knowledge hence attitude and self-care practice among these patients