BACKGROUND: Patients' self-care behaviour is still suboptimal in many heart failure (HF) patients and underlying mechanisms on how to improve self-care need to be studied. AIMS: (1) To describe the trajectory of patients' self-care behaviour over 1 year, (2) to clarify the relationship between the trajectory …

The Heart Failure Caregiver Questionnaire (HF-CQ) was developed to assess subjective outcomes of heart failure caregivers. The HF-CQ comprises 21 questions on three domains, namely physical, emotional/psychological and lifestyle. The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties …

The author reflects on the need for a comprehensive assessment of the structure and quality of the family or social network given that relationships are affected after the diagnosis of a cardiovascular disease. He points out that families may experience changing needs for support during the disease trajectory …

Background—Self-management interventions are widely implemented in care for patients with heart failure (HF). Trials however show inconsistent results and whether specific patient groups respond differently is unknown. This individual patient data meta-analysis assessed the effectiveness of self-management …

Purpose of review: To summarize the latest research on the risks and consequences of the burden that may be imposed on informal carers of persons living and dying with advanced heart failure. Recent findings: A systematic search in PubMed over the period 2013–2014 ultimately revealed 24 original articles …

Objective To evaluate the effects of a psycho-educational intervention on caregiver burden in partners of patients with postoperative heart failure. Background Since partners of cardiac surgery patients play a significant role in the patient’s recovery, it is important to address their needs during hospitalization …

Background: Patients with heart failure (HF) need long-term and complex care delivered by healthcare professionals in primary and secondary care. Although guidelines on optimal HF care exist, no specific description of components that are applied for optimal HF care at home exist. The objective of this …