Development and testing of a clinical tool measuring self-management of heart failure

BACKGROUND: Self-management is a primary goal of treatment for heart failur e. Yet no measure of selfmanagement in this patient group currently exists. OBJECTIVES: To develop a clinically useful measure of the abilities of pati ents with heart failure to manage their disease. Self-management in this co ntext was defined as a cognitive decision-making process undertaken in resp onse to signs and symptoms of heart failure. A panel of experts agreed that the process involved 4 distinct stages: recognizing a change, evaluating t he change, implementing a treatment strategy, and evaluating the treatment. The tool was developed to reflect this process. METHODS: Face validity of the process model was assessed in a sample of 25 patients with heart failure and used to develop a 65-item tool with 6 subsc ales. The subscales measure the 4 stages as well as the patients' ease in e valuating the signs and symptoms and their self-efficacy. The tool was pilo t tested with 2 samples of patients with heart failure (N = 17; N = 129). P sychometrics of the final tool were then tested in a sample of 127 patients With heart failure. RESULTS: Face and content validity of the tool were demonstrated adequately through this study. Internal consistency scores of the 6 subscales of the Self-Management of Heart Failure instrument ranged from 0.79 (ease of evalu ating treatment) to 0.92 (evaluating the change). Reliability could not be calculated for 1 subscale (evaluating the treatment) because of missing dat a that resulted from patients skipping sections because they had not experi enced a symptom. CONCLUSION: Clinicians interested in evaluating the self-management abiliti es of their patients with heart failure are encouraged to use this tool and to contribute to additional testing.