Treatment burden among patients with heart failure attending cardiac clinic of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital: an explanatory sequential mixed methods study

Emerging evidences hypothesized that patients with heart failure are susceptible to experience treatment burden. Despite this fact, no attempt was made so far to address this neoteric construct in the sub-Saharan African health care context. Hence, this study aimed to assess patients’ and health care providers’ perspectives on how to decrease treatment burden among patients with heart failure attending the adult cardiac clinic of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH). An explanatory sequential mixed methods study was conducted at the adult cardiac clinic of TASH, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from August 01 to September 30, 2021. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were employed to select participants for quantitative and qualitative studies, respectively. Descriptive analysis was done to summarize the quantitative data. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of treatment burden. P value < 0.05 was considered to declare statistical significance. Qualitative data were analyzed by using thematic analysis. A total of 325 patients were enrolled in the quantitative study. For the qualitative study, 14 patients and 11 health care providers (five nurses and six medical doctors) were included. Participants mean global Treatment Burden Questionnaire (TBQ-15) score was 27.22 ± 19.35. Approximately 12% (n = 38) patients indicated high treatment burden (TBQ-15 global score ≥ 59) with a median global score of 63(60–69). Higher education level (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 6.66, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.16–38.43), presence of two and more comorbidities (AOR = 2.74, 95%CI: 1.02–7.39), daily intake of more than five pills (AOR = 7.38, 95%CI: 2.23–24.41), poor medication availability (AOR = 3.33, 95%CI: 1.33–8.36), presence of medication adverse effects (AOR = 4.04, 95%CI: 1.63–10.03), and higher monthly cost of medication (AOR = 5.29, 95%CI: 1.46–19.18) were predictors of treatment burden. Patients and healthcare providers' propositions were primarily focused on improving self-care management, structural organization of the clinic and hospital, and healthcare system provision. Our findings demonstrated that a substantial proportion of patients faced low levels of treatment burden. This study unveiled that improving self-care management, structural organization of the clinic, and healthcare system provision had paramount importance to reducing treatment burden. Hence, factors affecting treatment burden should be considered when designing tailored healthcare interventions for patients with heart failure.