Family Caregivers' Contributions to Self-care Behaviors Among Heart Failure Patients in Oman

Background: Family caregiver's role can be involving patients with heart failure (HF) in each behavior of self-care such as treatment adherence, and healthy eating, which will \ultimately lead to disease control. This study aimed to investigate family caregivers' contributions to self-care behaviors among patients with heart failure in Oman.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. A convenience sample of 136 family caregivers of patients with HF has completed the family caregivers' demographics characteristics sheet and the Caregiver Contribution to Self-Care of HF Index2 (CC-SCHFI 2).

Results: Caregivers demonstrated low levels of contribution to patients' self-care. The mean and (standard deviation) of caregivers' contribution to maintenance tasks, patients' ability to perceive symptoms, and to patients' ability to manage self-care tasks scored 64.12 (SD = 15.70), 66.78 (SD = 14.72).and 52.26 (SD = 15.98) respectively. Education, exercise, and quality of social support were found to have a statistically significant association with caregivers' contribution to self-care maintenance at a p-value of 0.004, 0.004, 0.004 respectively. While gender, education, marital status, exercise, and quality of social support had statistically significant association with caregivers' contribution to self-care perception at a p-value of 0.003, 0.002, 0.006, < 0.01, and 0.004 respectively. Moreover, gender, education, marital status, exercise, and health compared to 1 year ago had significant association with caregivers' contribution to self-care management at a p-value of 0.009, 0.006, 0.005, <  0.01, 0.007 respectively.

Conclusion: Giving attention and support to caregivers can indirectly impact the self-care behaviors of patients with HF and consequently enhance patients' outcomes.