effect of illness perception correction - based educational program on quality of life and self-care in patients with heart failure: a randomized controlled trial

Introduction: because of the chronic nature of heart failure (hf), low quality of life (qol) and poor self-care are prevalent among patients with hf. thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of illness perception correction- based educational program on qol,and self- care in patients with hf. methods: in this randomized controlled trial, 78 eligible patients were included in the study from rajaei heart center (tehran, iran) and randomly assigned into intervention and control group with 1:1 allocation ratio. the intervention was a combination of illness perception correction- based education program (30- minute sessions over 3 consecutive days) and 10-minute phone calls made once a week in the course of 8 weeks. the control group received usual care. the primary outcome was quality of life and secondary outcomes were self- care and illness- perception which were measured at baseline and at the end of the study. spss version 13 was used for the analysis. results: out of 76 eligible patients, 70 patients with hf finished the study. although the mean of quality of life, self-care, and illness perception were not different at baseline, qol (45.2 (8.3) vs 66.8 (15.4); p<0.001), self-care (18.5 (4.5) vs 37.1 (7.2); p<0.001), and illness- perception (183.6 (8.4) vs 151.2 (24.5); p<0.001) improved following the program in the intervention group in comparison to the control group. conclusion: according to the study findings, this program can be applied by nurses for patients with hf as a discharge plan in order to improve their qol, self-care, and their illness perception.