Impact of chronic heart failure on elderly persons' daily life: a validation study.
BACKGROUND
Knowledge about how elderly persons perceive the impact of chronic heart failure (CHF) on daily life is important when planning nursing care. For this purpose, disease specific instruments are needed. However, few instruments have been developed or tested specifically on elderly persons.


OBJECTIVE
To validate a Swedish version of the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (LHFQ) on elderly persons with CHF, and use it to describe the impact of CHF on daily life in the same population.


METHODS
The sample comprised of 357 persons, aged between 65 and 99, diagnosed with CHF. A questionnaire including background data, the LHFQ and the SF-12 was used.


RESULTS
A factor analysis resulted in four dimensions: physical, emotional, treatment and pleasure. LHFQ showed convergent validity and ability to discriminate between known groups. Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was 0.94. Impairments in the physical dimension were most common, especially fatigue (88%) and shortness of breath (87%).


CONCLUSIONS
The LHFQ showed satisfying psychometric properties in an elderly Swedish population with CHF and can, with minor alterations, be recommended for research and clinical use. The impact of chronic heart failure on daily life was mostly physical, but other impairments were also common.
Franzén
Kristofer
K
Department of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, P.O. BOX 157, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden. kristofer.franzen@hik.se
Blomqvist
Kerstin
K
Saveman
Britt-Inger
BI
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006304:Health Status; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013548:Sweden; D014175:Translating