Effects of a family centered program on perceived social support in patients with congestive heart failure: An interventional study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Congestive heart failure is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases that have a progressive and chronic trend and influences individuals’ and their families’ various dimensions. Social support is one of the psychosocial factors that can have a positive effect on individuals’ physical, mental and social status. Despite the existence of evidences, revealing the importance of family's support on patients’ condition, family centered supportive interventions with goal of clinical outcomes improvement have been less conducted among these patients. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of family supportive intervention on the level of the support, received among heart failure patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a two-group two-stage clinical trial, conducted on 64 patients with cardiac failure, referring to selected educational centers and meeting the inclusion criteria, who were selected through convenient sampling. They were assigned to study (n = 32) and control (n = 32) groups through random allocation. Data were collected by questioning through a two-section medical records questionnaire and were analyzed by SPSS. RESULTS: Results of the study showed that mean scores of received support score were 13.7 (3.8) in the study and 0.8 (2.4) in the control group. Independent t-test showed a significant difference in mean changes of perceived support scores after the intervention between study and control groups (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Based on familial dimension in social support have a positive effect on patients’ perceived support. Nurses, as professional members of health care team, and with an important role in education and care of cardiac failure patients, can support, educate and guide these patients through designing appropriate care plans and educating their family members.