Mediation analysis of activities of daily living and kinesiophobia in association between cardiac function and health status of patients with chronic heart failure

AIMS: To explore the mediational effect of activities of daily living (ADL) and kinesiophobia on the cardiac function and health status of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). METHODS: From October 2021 to January 2022, a total of 244 CHF patients treated in the Department of Cardiology of general hospitals were recruited by the convenience sampling method. They were investigated with the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia Heart (TSK‐SV Heart), the Barthel index for assessing ADL, and the EuroQol five‐dimensional questionnaire (EQ‐5D) for assessing the health status. RESULTS: The cardiac function and kinesiophobia of CHF patients were both negatively correlated with their health status (r = −.390 and −0.410, respectively, both p < .01). Besides, the ADL of CHF patients was positively correlated with the health status (r = .320, p < .01). The cardiac function of CHF patients was negatively correlated with the ADL (r = −.412, p < .01), but positively correlated with kinesiophobia (r = .180, p < .01). The mediation proportion of ADL plus kinesiophobia between the cardiac function and health status of CHF patients was 43.48%. Both ADL and kinesiophobia partially mediated the effect of cardiac function on health status in CHF patients, but their mediational effects showed no significant difference (p = .777). CONCLUSION: Both ADL and kinesiophobia exert obvious mediational effects between cardiac function and health status in CHF patients. Individualized cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs based on the cardiac function, ADL and kinesiophobia of CHF patients may contribute to reduce the medical burden and improve the well‐being of affected people.