Evaluation of symptoms in heart failure paitents

Research was planned descriptive in order to evaluate the frequency and size of the symptoms which cause hospital readmission for heart failure patients and to determine affecting them sociodemographic and disease-related features. The sample of the study were consist of 117 patients hospitalized in cardiology service. The data was collected by the researcher using "Patient Information Form", "Heart Failure Memorial Assessment Scale (MSAS-HF)" and "Charlson Comorbidity Index". In the analysis of data, number, percentage, mean, Independent t, One-way annova, Mann whitney u, Kruskal wallis tests and Correlation analys was used. The mean age of patients in the study were 68.60 ± 12.55 and 66.7% were male. 40.2% of patients were diagnosed with heart failure 1-3 years ago. According to New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification, 59.8% of patients had class III heart failure. Of the patients, 58.1% had 10%-25% ejection fraction, 42.7% were hospitalized 1-3 times due to heart failure within 1 year. The most common sypmtoms experienced by patients were day and night shortness of breath (82.1%;81.2%), difficulty sleeping (77.8%), fatigue (65.8%), difficulty breathing when lying flat (59.8%), feeling bloated (59.8%). There was a significant (p<0.05) relationship between age and MSAS-HF subscale and overall scale scores and the average was higher in elderly patients. Global Distress Index subscale was significantly higher in patients who were hospitalized more than 3, Psychologic subcale was significanly higher in patients who were hospitalized 1-3 times due to heart failure within 1 year (p<0.05). Patients who did not follow the daily weigth monitoring, those who did not have sleep patterns, those who did not exercise and those had self-care problems at home had higher scores for MSAS-HF subscale and overall and the differences were significant (p<0.05). As a result, heart failure patients try to cope with the burden of symptoms and live with frequent rate and severity of symptoms. Nurses should develop strategies to minimize these symptoms and should focus on the symptoms which is particulary severe and affecting hospitalization. Key words: Heart failure, Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, Symptom, Readmission to hospital