Self-reported quality of life
Participants reported that very often shortness of breath
and fatigue interfered with their ability to do things, that
they required frequent rest periods during the day, and
that their heart failure made walking and climbing stairs
difficult. Participants felt that their heart failure symptoms
had very little effect on family burden, loss of control,
and making them feel worried and depressed. Finally,
participants reported that length of hospital stays
and decreased recreational pastimes were directly related
to heart failure symptoms (see Table 4). Cronbach’s alphas
for the two subscales were 0.82 for physical quality