2.2. Participants. The sample included 188 adult patients diagnosed with HF and systolic dysfunction, hospitalized for decompensated HF. Patients with communication barriers, with a diagnosis of acute HF secondary to sepsis, myocardi- tis, or acute myocardial infarction, who lived more than 20 km from the institutions, or who could not be contacted by telephone were excluded from the study. Hospitalized patients were recruited from inpatient medical units and emergency departments by active search during daily visits by the study team to these units. The study was conducted at two referral centers for the treatment of patients with HF in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, city capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, and approved by the Research Ethics Committees of both institutions (protocol numbers 09-111 and 4339-09