title: Patients' well-being: experience and actions in their preventing and handling of atrial fibrillation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Atrial fibrillation (AF) influences the lives of patients in the form of worsened well-being. Patients' own experience of and how to handle AF is rarely investigated. These are important aspects for healthcare services to understand in order to support the well-being of patients with AF.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore and describe critical incidents in which patients experience how AF affects their well-being and what actions they take to prevent and handle it.
  
  
  METHODS
  An explorative, descriptive design based on the critical incident technique (CIT) was used. Interviews were conducted with 25 patients (16 men and 9 women) with AF in a healthcare area in southern Sweden.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients experienced discomfort and limitations in daily life. The actions they took were self-care related actions and healthcare related actions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AF affects well-being when it is uncomfortable and leads to pronounced limitations in daily life with the patients trying to maintain or restore well-being through adapting and developing strategies for self-care. Patients base the handling of AF on their personal experience.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden. helena.ekblad@hhj.hj.se
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ekblad
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rönning
authors.forename: Bengt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fridlund
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malm
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis