A descriptive correlation of medication and dietary compliance beliefs with functional limitations in heart failure patients

• Main Author: Diener, Dorothy B.
• Format: Others
• Published: FIU Digital Commons 2000
• Subjects: Nursing
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2817; http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4117&context=etd

In order to determine the existence of a relationship between heart failure patients' compliance beliefs and functional limitations, using a convenience sample of 61 adults attending a specialized outpatient heart failure clinic, responses to scale items measuring perceptions of benefits and barriers to compliance with medication and diet were collected and functional limitations were self ranked by symptoms experienced with activities of daily living. A positive correlation (Spearman's rho=0.345, p=.007, level of significance =.0l) between patients' functional limitations and perceived benefits to medication compliance scores was found while a negative correlation (Spearman's rho= -0.310, p=.015, level of significance =.05) between functional limitations and perceived barriers to medication compliance scores was found. Patients' functional limitations correlated with neither benefits nor barriers to diet compliance scores. It is recommended that nurses assess and utilize heart failure patients' functional limitations to individualize interventions aimed at influencing compliance beliefs.