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- Andreae, Christina, 1969-
(författare)
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Appetite in patients with heart failure : Assessment, prevalence and related factors
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Appetite is an important component in nutrition for maintaining the food intake needed by the body. Decreased appetite is a common clinical problem in patients with heart failure. It has a negative impact on food intake and possibly on malnutrition and health outcomes. There is a lack of evidence on how to assess appetite in heart failure. Furthermore, there are knowledge gaps about factors associated with appetite and which role appetite plays for health status in heart failure. Aim: The overall aim of the thesis was to investigate appetite in patients with heart failure. Four studies were conducted with the goal to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Council on Nutrition Appetite Questionnaire (CNAQ) (I) and to explore the prevalence of decreased appetite and related factors associated with appetite in patients with heart failure (II-IV). Methods: A multicenter study was conducted in three outpatient heart failure clinics in the center of Sweden during 2009-2012. Data were collected through a baseline measurement (I-IV) and an 18-month follow-up (IV). The first study was a psychometric evaluation study (I), while the other studies had an observational cross-sectional design (II-III) and an observational prospective design (IV). One hundred and eighty-six patients diagnosed with heart failure and experiencing heart failure symptoms participated at baseline. At the 18-month follow-up study (IV), one hundred and sixteen participants from the baseline participated. Data were collected from medical records (pharmacological treatment, comorbidity, left ventricle ejection fraction, time of diagnosis), self-reported questionnaires (demographic background data, appetite, symptoms of depression, health status, sleep, self-reported physical activity), objective measurements (anthropometric assessment of body size, blood samples, six minutes’ walk test, and physical activity measured with an actigraph) and clinical assessment (New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification, and cognitive assessment). The main outcome variables included appetite (I, II and IV) and health status (III). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the studies (I-IV). Results: The majority of the participants had moderate heart failure symptoms, i.e., NYHA class II (n=114, 61%). Most of the participants were men (n=130, 70%). Mean age was 70,7 years, (SD=11,0), and mean BMI was 28.7 (SD=5.3). The CNAQ showed acceptable psychometric properties for assessing appetite in patients with heart failure (I). This thesis shows that 38% of the participants experienced an appetite level that put them at risk of weight loss (I). It was shown that factors such as biological, medical, psychological (II) and physical activity/exercise capacity (IV) are associated with appetite. Also, appetite was associated with impaired health status. However, this association was found to be moderated by symptoms of depression (III). Neither appetite nor physical activity changed during the 18-month follow-up (IV). Conclusion: Decreased appetite is a serious phenomenon that needs attention in the care of patients with heart failure. Health care professionals can now use a validated and simple appetite instrument to assess appetite in heart failure. In addition, attention should be paid to elderly patients and those who have symptoms of depression, sleep problems, impaired cognitive function and impaired physical activity, as well as to patients on suboptimal medical treatment. Higher appetite was shown to contribute to a better health status, but this was only evident in patients without symptoms of depression. Therefore, special attention should be paid to symptoms of depression, as this risk factor affected the association between appetite and health status. This thesis enhances the understanding of the magnitude of the problem with decreased appetite in heart failure both in numbers and factors. New priorities in nutrition care and new ideas can be established, both in practice and in research, in order to improve a nutrition care that is vital for patients with heart failure.
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| 2. |
- Hjelmfors, Lisa, 1984-
(författare)
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Communication about the Heart Failure Trajectory in Patients, their Families and Health Care Professionals
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: There is an increasing awareness in the field of cardiology regarding the need for improved delivery of palliative care in patients with heart failure (HF). Professional guidelines have drawn attention to the importance of discussing the heart failure trajectory with patients and their families. These discussions can include, for example, talking about the prognosis, expectations for the future, and care at the end-of-life. It seems difficult for health care professionals to choose the right time for initiating these discussions. They often avoid these conversations because they are afraid of taking away hope and make the patients and their families anxious.Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to improve communication about the heart failure trajectory in patients, their families, and health care professionals.Design and methods: This thesis includes five studies using different designs and data collection methods. Study I has a cross-sectional design using a questionnaire to collect data to describe heart failure nurses’ perceptions of and practice in discussing prognosis and end-of-life care with heart failure patients. Study II has a descriptive and comparative design, where a survey was performed to describe Swedish and Dutch heart failure nurses’ reasons for discussing or not discussing prognosis and end-of-life care with patients. Study III has an inductive and exploratory design, where HF patients participated in focus groups or individual interviews. Data was collected based on their perceptions of communication about the heart failure prognosis. Study IV was a small-scale ethnographic study describing and evaluating the delivery of a simulation when teaching third-year nursing students about end-of-life care at a Swedish university. Study V used co-design in which patients with HF from primary care, their family members and health care professionals (physicians and nurses) from palliative and HF care were invited to be constructive participants in the design process of a communication intervention. Health care professionals participated in a first feasibility testing of the intervention.Results: Most Swedish HF nurses had discussed prognosis (96%) and end-of-life care (84%) with a HF patient at some point in clinical practice. The nurses often reported that a physician was to have the main responsibility for such discussions (69%), but that the nurse was also believed to have a role to play (I). Prognosis and end-of-life care were, together with sexual activity, () the three least frequently discussed topics in HF clinics in both Sweden and the Netherlands (II). In conversations with 1,809 Swedish and Dutch HF patients, prognosis was discussed with 38% of the patients and end-of-life care was discussed with 10%. In study III, patients expressed different experiences of and preferences for communication about their HF prognosis. Many patients described that the health care professionals had not provided them with any prognosis information at all. The patients had different understandings of HF as a chronic illness, which had an impact on their preferences for communication about their prognosis (III). The simulation training described in the ethnographic study (IV) was part of an end-of-life care simulation during the last term of the 3- year bachelor degree level nursing education program, where students learn and practice basic palliative care. The students felt that the simulation training was a good opportunity to practice handling end-of- life situations as it gave them a chance to experience this situation and their own feelings and thoughts on death and dying. In study V, an intervention to improve communication about prognosis and end-of-life care in HF care was developed and some areas were feasibility tested. Heart failure patients, their families and health care professionals working in HF care or palliative care participated in the development process. Health care professionals (nurses and physicians) participated in the following feasibility testing of the intervention.Conclusions: This thesis shows that prognosis and end-of-life care are seldom discussed with HF patients in Swedish and Dutch heart failure care. and that many heart failure nurses have ambiguous attitudes towards discussing these topics with patients and their families (I+II). The patients described that they receive different messages concerning their heart failure, and that they also have different preferences for discussing the heart failure trajectory with health care professionals. The professionals need to understand the impact of heart failure on each patient and adapt the communication to each individual (III). End-of-life care simulation with skilled supervisors shows great promise for health care professionals to learn good communication skills in end-of-life care conversations (IV). A Question Prompt List and a communication course might be useful for improving communication about the heart failure trajectory in patients, their families, and health care professionals
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| 3. |
- Klompstra, Leonie, 1982-
(författare)
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Physical activity in patients with heart failure : motivations, self-efficacy and the potential of exergaming
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Adherence to recommendations for physical activity is low in patients with heart failure (HF). It is essential to explore to what extent and why patients with HF are physically active. Self-efficacy and motivation for physical activity are important in becoming more physically active, but the role of self-efficacy in the relationship between motivation and physical activity in patients with HF is unknown. Alternative approaches to motivate and increase self-efficacy to exercise are needed. One of these alternatives might be using exergames (games to improve physical exercise). Therefore, it is important to obtain more knowledge on the potential of exergaming to increase physical activity.The overall aim was to describe the physical activity in patients with HF, with special focus on motivations and self-efficacy in physical activity, and to describe the potential of exergaming to improve exercise capacity.Methods: Study I (n = 154) and II (n = 101) in this thesis had a cross-sectional survey design. Study III (n = 32) was a 12-week pilot intervention study, including an exergame platform at home, with a pretest-posttest design. Study IV (n = 14) described the experiences of exergaming in patients who participated in the intervention group of a randomized controlled study in which they had access to an exergame platform at home.Results: In total, 34% of the patients with HF had a low level of physical activity, 46% had a moderate level, 23% reported a high level. Higher education, higher selfefficacy, and higher motivation were significantly associated with a higher amount of physical activity. Barriers to exercise were reported to be difficult to overcome and psychological motivations were the most important motivations to be physically active. Women had significantly higher total motivation to be physically active. Self-efficacy mediated the relationship between exercise motivation and physical activity; motivation leads to a higher self-efficacy towards physical activity.More than half of the patients significantly increased their exercise capacity after 12 weeks of using an exergame platform at home. Lower NYHA-class and shorter time since diagnosis were factors significantly related to the increase in exercise capacity. The mean time spent exergaming was 28 minutes per day. Having grandchildren and being male were related to more time spent exergaming.The analysis of the qualitative data resulted in three categories describing patients’ experience of exergaming: (i) making exergaming work, (ii) added value of exergaming, (iii) no appeal of exergaming.Conclusion: One-third of the patients with HF had a low level of physical activity in their daily life. Level of education, exercise self-efficacy, and motivation were important factors to take into account when advising patients with HF about physical activity. In addition to a high level of motivation to be physically active, it is important that patients with HF have a high degree of exercise self-efficacy.Exergaming has the potential to increase exercise capacity in patients with HF. The results also showed that this technology might be suitable for some patients while others may prefer other kinds of physical activity.
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