Abbott, Laurie

Introduction: Depressive symptoms, negative life changes, poor self-care, and higher caregiver burden are common in caregivers who assist individuals with heart failure (HF) in managing daily activities and disease-related symptoms. Previous research findings suggest social support, problem solving, and family function may influence these outcomes. However, the influence of these factors on outcomes in rural HF caregivers is unknown.

Background: Little is known about heart failure (HF) caregiver self-care. Methods: This article reports a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional, descriptive study involving 530 HF caregivers. A three-step latent class mixture model identified HF caregiver classes at risk for poor self-care and examined the relationship between the identified self-care classes and caregiver burden and depression. Caregivers completed online surveys on self-care, caregiver burden, depression, problem-solving, social support, and family function.

Heart failure is a serious and complex chronic illness and family caregivers often assist these individuals in performing self-care. Unsurprisingly, caregivers often are overwhelmed by daily activities associated with heart failure management and frequently have depressive symptoms.