The Relationship between Health Literacy, Health Behaviors, and Self-care in Patients with Heart Failure

Background: Health literacy (HL), health behaviors, and self-care are considered important in managing heart failure (HF) disease. Objective: The present study aimed to determine the relationship between HL, health behaviors, and self-care in HF patients. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study's sample consisted of 120 HF patients hospitalized in the cardiology clinics of Atat & uuml;rk University Research Hospital. The data of the study were collected with the Patient Identification Form, Turkey HL Scale-32, HF Health Behavior Scale (HFHBS), European HF Self-Care Behavior Scale-12 (EHFSCBS-12), and Self-Care of HF Index (SCHFI). Results: It was determined in the study that 50% of the patients had inadequate HL levels, 32.5% had problematic/limited, 13.3% had adequate, and 4.2% had excellent. The mean score of HFHBS was found to be 60.09 +/- 8.75. According to the scores of EHFSCBS-12, 58.3% of the patients had inadequate self-care scores. The mean scores of the subdimensions of SCHFI were 22.87 +/- 3.23 in self-care maintenance, 13.62 +/- 4.46 in self-care management, and 14.38 +/- 3.00 in self-care confidence. It was also determined that there were a statistically significant and positive correlation between the mean scores of HL total scores, HFHBS, and mean scores of the SCHFI subdimensions and a negative significant relationship between the mean scores of EHFSCBS-12 (P < 0.05). Conclusion: It was concluded that as the total HL score of HF patients increased, their health behaviors and self-care behaviors also increased, and self-care confidence in self-care maintenance, self-care management, and providing self-care scores improved.

Journal

INDIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Year

2025

Volume

69

Issue

3

Pages

253-259

ISSN

0019-557X

eISSN

2229-7693

DOI

10.4103/ijph.ijph_958_23

WoS UID

WOS:001587526100008