Relationship of physical symptoms and physical functioning to depression in patients with heart failure

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the relative contribu tion of physical symptoms and physical functioning to depression in adult p atients with heart failure during hospitalization and the early postdischar ge period. DESIGN: An exploratory, correlational longitudinal design was used. PATIENTS: The sample included 170 subjects with heart failure. RESULTS: Subjects' mean scores on the depression scale indicated that subje cts were not depressed on average; however, 30% of the sample (n = 52) had scores indicative of clinical depression. Both physical symptoms (r = 0.48) and physical functioning (r = -0.32) were moderately correlated with depre ssion Physical symptoms contributed 13% uniquely to the variance in depress ion while physical functioning contributed only 2% uniquely to the variance in depression. Multiple regression analyses indicated that physical sympto matology is more closely related to depression than is physical functioning in adults with heart failure. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed the patients with heart failure who had incr eased physical symptoms and poorer physical functioning reported increased symptoms of depression. Physical symptoms explained a greater portion of th e variance in depression than did physical functioning. Thus, it appears th at patients with heart failure are affected emotionally by both their physi cal symptoms and their limitations in their physical functioning, but depre ssion is more strongly related to having more physical symptoms than having greater limitations in physical functioning.