self-care in hF
Effective self-care is of crucial importance in the manage-ment of HF. Self-care is a term comprising a patient’s behaviors contributing to maintenance of a stable physi-ological state. It also involves reacting to any symptoms that may occur and alleviating them.9 Self-care is a complex process that involves adherence to medical regimens, inter-pretation of HF symptoms, and the ability to perform early self-management and cooperate with caregivers.10 Some self-management strategies, such as monitoring one’s weight and self-adjustment of diuretics, are recommended in the American Heart Association guidelines.11 Multiple geriatric conditions associated with cognitive, hearing, and eyesight impairment limit the ability to maintain self-care.
Therefore, identification of frailty in patients with HF may be important from the clinical point of view, as this condition adversely affects the course of the disease; it may also have an impact on self-care capabilities, because frailty contributes to a higher frequency of emergency department visits, hospitalizations, falls, and higher mortality in HF patients.