Factors affecting the quality of life of patients with HEART failure in irak

Background: Heart failure, whose frequency is increasing every other day and which can sometimes be diagnosed incorrectly, is a general and serious condition of health that can lead to a serious influence on the quality of life and life expectancy of patients. Because of changing population dynamics, the prevalence of hypertension and coronary heart disease will increase modestly assuming constant incidence rates specific to age, race and gender. The incidence of diabetes and obesity is expected to rise by age, ethnicity and gender, resulting in a higher prevalence of these risk factors and possibly a higher prevalence of heart failure than that caused by alteration population dynamics. Heart failure will remain a growing health problem. Objective: The aim of the study is to evalyuate the levels of factors affecting the quality of life of patients with heart failure. Methods: In the study, adescriptive cross-sectional design was used. A total of 150 adults with heart failure were randomly selected among patients in the Al-Hakeim, Al-Sadir, and Al-Furat hospitals, which provides health care for patients with heart failure, in Nejef Governorate (n = 246) according to the hospitals' monthly target for intensive care units. The study relied on the study of Krejcie and Morgan to determine the sample size based on an equation. This procedure included selecting (150) patients from the Al-Hakeim, Al-Sadir, and Al-Furat hospitals, where the total number of patients was 246. Al-Sadir hospital included 199 patients, Al-Hakeim hospital had 35 patients, and Al-Furat hospital had 12 patients. The proportional stratified sampling procedure was employed for calculating the number of patients for each hospital. So, the number of patients selected from each hospital was found as follows: 122 from Al-Sadr Hospital, 21 from Al Hakim Hospital, and 7 from Al Furat Hospital. Participants answered a three-part questionnaire. These parts included demographic characteristics, medical characteristics, and quality of life domains from the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale. A five-point likert-type scale was used to evaluate the items. Data were collected from January 1, 2022 to March 1, 2022 through interviews and were analyzed by applying descriptive statistical analysis that included percentages, numbers, standard deviation values, mean scores, and p-value. Results: It was found that the majority of the patients with heart failure were aged 65 and above, the disorder was more prevalent among females, the majority of the patients had not received higher education, most patients were housewives and unemployed, and that the majority of patients with heart failure were urban residents. According to the findings, most patients with heart failure had a considerable limitation in physical activity, the majority of them had high blood pressure and diabetes, and most of them were smokers. The study indicated that the majority of patients controlled their weight, a high percentage of patients had been readmitted to hospital due to heart failure, and that most of the patients could not do their personal hygiene. The majority of patients had a higher level of social support than the rest of the psychological, environmental, and physical domains. The information obtained about the disease was acceptable, but the safety precautions against the disease were poor. Statistically significant differences were found between quality of life and occupation, monthly income, and stage of heart failure and hospital readmission. Conclusions: We concluded that the quality of life had a substantial effect on patients with heart failure, as the quality of life of the majority of patients in Najaf governorate was poor.