Page 31 - JCTR-9-5

Arab et al. | Journal of Clinical and Translational Research 2023; 9(5): 332-339 333
Heart failure causes severe and progressive fatigue, intolerance and reduce the risk of heart disease. A health education program
to exercise, fluid retention, and dyspnea, which often result developed by nurses for patients improves patients’ knowledge of
in reduced quality of life [7]. Research in neurocardiology has the disease and awareness of behavioral changes to prevent a new
alluded to the presence of a “heart-brain” connection and the event or hospital admission [12].
increased prevalence of anxiety, depressive, and stress symptoms Results of previous studies showed that illness perception plays
among this patient population [8]. a predictive role in psychological and physical health conditions.
Seyam et al. [2013] concluded that it is necessary to provide Furthermore, these studies suggested that to understand the
appropriate consultation and special attention should also be paid increase in adherence to therapy, the perception of the disease
to patients who have been hospitalized more often due to heart should be increased through education to patients. Thus, health-
disease, as well as to those who have had a long history of heart care providers should take interventions focused on changing
disease. This ultimately prevents the recurrence of the disease and illness perception to improve health outcomes in patients with
is useful in improving the quality of life and health [9]. heart failure [14-16]. As far as the authors are concerned, no study
Patient perception of the illness affects disease management has focused on this issue in Iran. Therefore, the present study
and the psychological management of the patient. Being able to was conducted to determine the effect of nursing consultation on
diagnose the cause of the disease helps patients to guide the disease illness perception in heart failure patients.
control practical programs. The perception of the illness is the
patients’ organized cognitive reflection of their illness. According 2. Methods
to the theory of Leventhal et al., patients regulate their emotional 2.1. Study design
behavior and response to the disease based on their perceptions of
the nature, causes, consequences, control, and treatability of the The present study is an experimental study in which two groups
disease [10]. Patient support aims at increasing the perception of of heart failure patients were assessed pre-and post-intervention.
individual control, which is one of the important components of 2.2. Participants
illness perception. Patient support can be a primary care strategy
in rebuilding health-facilitating programs, reducing fatigue, In this study, 100 heart failure patients were selected by
and improving quality of life. Therefore, having a complete convenient sampling method and then divided into the intervention
understanding of the components of illness perception is useful and control groups by block randomization method. In the block
and effective for guiding a person to a good quality of life [11]. randomization method, the number of patients assigned to each
Lucas et al. (2015) examined the effect of nurse consultation group is almost equal. In this method, blocks were formed based
on heart disease, the beliefs, and the quality of life of heart on the variables considered in the present study. One-half of each
failure patients. They found that being in touch with a nurse block comprised intervention subjects and the other half includes
who specializes in heart failure patients, could improve patients’ the control group participants. The main goal of this method is to
satisfaction with treatment decisions. However, it had less effect give a balance to the number of participants in each group.
on a patient’s beliefs compared to personal control and treatment The sample size was determined based on previous studies [17]
control [4]. and using the comparison formula of two averages and considering
A study by Kadda et al. (2012) in Greece focused on the role the following:
of nursing education after a heart attack. The findings showed that z 2
nursing education regarding cardiac rehabilitation could improve 2(z 1− α + z 1 β − ) σ
health outcomes and reduce the risk of heart disease. A health n = 2 2
education program organized by nurses for patients after a heart d
attack or surgery improves patients’ knowledge of the disease and d = 0.15, β = 0.80 α = 0.05
awareness of behavioral changes to prevent a new condition or There were 50 patients in each group. Eventually, 100
hospital admission [12]. participants entered the study. The study was able to detect at
Lucas (2015) studied the effect of heart failure nurse consultations least a 15% of difference in the illness perception between the
on patients’ illness beliefs, mood, and quality of life over 6 months. two groups, with a power of 80%. By performing power analysis
The results showed that nursing consultation affected the belief in using our data, the power value of 0.89 was obtained, which is
illness, satisfaction, and treatment decisions [4]. very good and acceptable and even higher than 0.80 that we used
Given the increasing number of heart failure patients and its to calculate the sample size.
devastating effects on quality of life, it is recommended that nurses 2.3. Inclusion and exclusion criteria
look for a new way to improve the quality of life of heart failure
patients [1]. One of the nursing interventions is consultation [13]. The inclusion criteria were as follows: A minimum of 18 years and
Nurses play a key role in treatment because they are close a maximum of 80 years, a history of chronic heart failure based on
to patients and their families throughout the disease process. clinical signs, electrocardiography, and echocardiography, indicating
Nurses need to meet the needs of patient care through training, an ejection fraction of <40% based on the patient’s profile and with
consultation, support, supervision, and reinforcement. Nursing the approval of a cardiologist. The patients had to be in Classes 2
training in cardiac rehabilitation can improve health outcomes, and 3 heart failure, according to the New York Heart Association’s
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18053/jctres.09.202305.22-00161