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The aim of this study is to assess the perceived quality of life of Bahraini patients with heart failure.

A sample of 250 patients aged 18 years and older was recruited using a cross-sectional design. Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire version three was employed to obtain data from participants on their socio-demographic characteristics and their perceived quality of life.

The mean age of patients was 69.0 ± 8.1 years and 78% were males. Almost half of the patients with third/fourth degree heart failure had difficulties in earning a living (48.4%) since they had long periods of hospital stays (49.2%). The quality of life is inversely proportional to the age of the patients with third/fourth degree heart failure (p < 0.001). Most of the patients had a poor quality of life (74.8%); about 21.6% had a moderate quality of life, while only few patients (3.6%) had a good quality of life.

The quality of life among Bahraini patients diagnosed with third/fourth degree heart failure is generally poor. Further, advanced age, low level of education, not currently married and low income were shown to be associated with poor quality of life. A need exists to include a quality of life assessment tool as part of the management of these patients.

There is little evidence that treatment advances have improved the prognosis of heart failure in the community. One explanation is the failure of doctors to undertake necessary prescribing. Reports elsewhere how a modified Delphi approach, based on the RAND Health Services utilisation study method, was used to produce audit criteria for necessary prescribing for systolic heart failure in New Zealand (NZ) general practice. Reports experience of applying these criteria in late 1999 to the medical notes of a random sample of 70 patients with heart failure, as defined by a recorded diagnosis in 30 practices in central Auckland, NZ. Use of the audit criteria was feasible and appears valid, although the methods used to apply them need to be simplified to be of use as a practical means of promoting clinical governance. The small patient sample demands caution in interpreting the results. However, uncommon yet plausible findings, such as the high frequency of ACE inhibitor prescribing for heart failure, deserve further investigation.

This study of 216 congestive heart failure (CHF) patients at a large teaching hospital in south‐central Ontario was undertaken to determine whether the patients managed in an outpatient heart failure clinic used fewer hospital resources (as expressed in number of admissions, complexity of admission, and length of stay (LOS)) than a matched cohort who were not managed in an outpatient clinic. Statistical significance of LOS opportunities could not be demonstrated (owing to sample size), however, the heart failure clinic is making a positive impact on all types of admissions (CHF and non‐CHF) in terms of LOS and suggests that management in an outpatient setting for chronic disease states is important for acute care hospitals to consider.

The purpose of this study is to integrate evidence on contributing factors, consequences, in addition to coping mechanisms of depression and anxiety in patients with heart failure.

An integrative review was conducted by searching three main electronic databases: Web of Sciences, MEDLINE and Science Direct. Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final review process.

The review identified the most common contributing factors, consequences and coping mechanisms of depression and anxiety in patients with heart failure. Patients with heart failure have high anxiety and depression prevalence rates.

It is recommended to include routine assessment and management of anxiety and depression in heart failure protocols to improve clinical outcomes.

Describes and analyses the factors limiting the success of implementation of guidelines on management of heart failure using content analysis of structured interviews with nine general practitioners in Wakefield District, validated from hospital records, to generate within‐case displays. Discusses the results and conclusions.

Describes a process of adopting a set of review criteria for use in a regional project to improve heart failure management in general practice. Published guideline review criteria were assessed using a protocol examining indicator relevance, practicality and the clinical evidence on which indicators were based. An expert panel with experience in general practice, cardiology and general internal medicine, ethics, and research methodology was used to evaluate the indicators. Good overall agreement was observed with the review criteria. Areas of disagreement related to poor wording of the criteria, the need to incorporate more up‐to‐date evidence and criteria based on weak evidence. A need exists for greater training of health practitioners about how regional indicators can be used as screening tools for quality improvement. Nationally endorsed sets of regularly updated review criteria for common and important conditions would be helpful in guiding similar quality improvement projects.

Heart Failure (HF) is one of the leading mortality causes in elderly people. The purpose of this study is to assess readmission rates and reasons in elderly patients with HF.

The authors explored medical records of elderly patients with HF (75 years and more) at Chapidze Emergency Cardiology Center (Georgia) from 2015 to 2019. The authors analyzed the structure of the cardiovascular diseases and readmission rates of hospitalized patients with HF (I50, I50.0 I50.1). A multivariate logistic regression model was used to identify factors, associated with readmission for any reason during 6–9 months after the initial hospitalization for HF.

The major complication of cardiovascular diseases in elderly patients is HF (68.6%). Hospitalization rates due to HF in elderly patients have increased in recent years, which is associated with the population aging process. This trend will be most likely continue. Despite significant improvements in HF treatment, readmission rates are still high. HF is the most commonly revealed cause of readmission (48% of all readmissions). About 6–9 months after the primary hospitalization due to HF, readmission for any reason was 60%. Patients had concomitant diseases, including hypertension (43%), myocardial infarction (14%), diabetes (36%) and stroke (8%), affecting the readmission rate.

HF remains an important problem in public health. During HF-associated hospitalizations, both cardiac and non-cardiac conditions should be addressed, which has the potential for health problems and disease progression. Some readmissions may be prevented by the proper selection of medicines and monitoring.

Due to recent Affordable Care Act reforms, prevention of readmissions is a salient issue for hospitals that participate in Medicare, as they are now held accountable for patients who receive post-acute care in facilities over which hospitals have little influence to monitor care. Using resource dependence and transaction cost economics to describe the theoretical advantages of hospital ownership of post-acute care facilities (PACs), we empirically test whether hospitals that own PACs experience reduced readmissions. Our findings indicate partial support for the predicted relationship between PAC ownership and readmission rates. We found that hospital ownership of a skilled-nursing facility (SNF) was related to a lower readmissions rate for some patients, while ownership of other types of PACs did not result in significant findings. Our results offer support for the theoretical advantages of ownership, however, the savings realized by ownership may not merit the ownership investment.

This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of triggers of psychological distress among Jordanian patients with heart failure (HF).

A phenomenological study was adopted. In-depth, semi-structured, audio-taped interviews were conducted for 25 patients with HF. The analysis was done using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The main theme of the findings can be expressed as “faced with stressors that are unable to cope with”, which encompasses circumstances and contexts associated with the psychological distress they faced. The following four sub-themes emerged from the data: being endorsed in significant life changes, feeling guilty about being a burden, financial burden aggravating stress and feeling overwhelmed by the fear of death.

The findings revealed that psychological distress is affected directly by many triggers. The findings indicate the need for informing health-care providers to support these patients and address the challenges and develop clinical guidelines to assess psychological distress among these patients.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of illness-related worries as a mediator among depression, anxiety and self-care in heart failure (HF) patients was the aim of this study.

This study was descriptive and correlational study. In total, 149 patients with HF were selected for sampling in 2016. Patients completed self-care behavior scale, illness-related worries questionnaire and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) questionnaires. The Pearson correlation coefficient and Sobel test were also done.

According to the analysis of the Sobel test, the role of illness-related worries as a mediator in the relationship between depression and self-care result was −5.37. Sobel test analysis was done to assess the role of illness-related worries as mediator between anxiety and self-care (6.66). The correlation between depression and self-care was 0.488 (p<0.01); correlation between anxiety and self-care was 0.4 (p<0.01); correlation between anxiety and depression was 0.79 (p<0.01); and the correlation between illness-related worries and self-care was 0.71 (p<0.01).

Illness-related worries can serve as a mediator in the relationship among depression, anxiety and self-care. There was a significant correlation among the research variables. Therefore, educational programs to reduce depression, anxiety and increase self-care should be given priority to for HF patients.