title: Comparison of self-care behaviors of heart failure patients in 15 countries worldwide.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Clinicians worldwide seek to educate and support heart failure patients to engage in self-care. We aimed to describe self-care behaviors of patients from 15 countries across three continents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data on self-care were pooled from 5964 heart failure patients from the United States, Europe, Australasia and South America. Data on self-care were collected with the Self-care of Heart Failure Index or the European Heart Failure Self-care Behavior Scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all the samples, most patients reported taking their medications as prescribed but exercise and weight monitoring were low. In 14 of the 22 samples, more than 50% of the patients reported low exercise levels. In 16 samples, less than half of the patients weighed themselves regularly, with large differences among the countries. Self-care with regard to receiving an annual flu shot and following a low sodium diet varied most across the countries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Self-care behaviors are sub-optimal in heart failure patients and need to be improved worldwide.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Interventions that focus on specific self-care behaviors may be more effective than general educational programs. Changes in some health care systems and national policies are needed to support patients with heart failure to increase their self-care behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Welfare Studies, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. Tiny.jaarsma@liu.se
authors.forename: Tiny
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jaarsma
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Strömberg
authors.forename: Tuvia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ben Gal
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cameron
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Driscoll
authors.forename: Hans-Dirk
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Duengen
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Inkrot
authors.forename: Tsuey-Yuan
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Nguyen Ngoc
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Huyen
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Köberich
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lupón
authors.forename: Debra K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pulignano
authors.forename: Eneida Rejane
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Rabelo
authors.forename: Jom
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Suwanno
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Ercole
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vellone
authors.forename: Rosaria
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alvaro
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Riegel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044362:Australasia; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012648:Self Care; D013020:South America; D014481:United States