Rockwell and Riegel found that level of education and
symptom severity were the two predictors of self-care,
which suggests that those patients with heart failure who
were better educated and those who recognized worsening
heart failure symptoms were better at self-care management.
The authors suggested that higher education
may lead to better critical thinking skills and better selfcare,
but that further research was needed to confirm
this thought. In addition, it was postulated that symptom
severity in relation to improved self-care could be
verified by the fact that those with advanced disease may
have more experience than those patients who have been
diagnosed with heart failure more recently (2001).