Patient activation, knowledge, and health literacy association with self-management behaviors in persons with heart failure.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: More evidence is needed about factors that influence self-management behaviors in persons with heart failure. OBJECTIVE: To test a correlational mediation model of the independent variables of health literacy, patient activation, and heart failure knowledge with heart failure self-management behaviors. METHODS: The study used a prospective, cross-sectional, correlational design. Correlation and multiple regression were used to analyze associations among variables. RESULTS: Of 151 participants, 57% were male, and mean age was 68 years. Heart failure self-management behaviors was positively correlated with patient activation level (p = .0008), but not with health literacy or heart failure knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Persons with heart failure may better manage their condition if sufficiently activated, regardless of their level of health literacy or knowledge of heart failure disease and management processes.