Identifying and understanding the impact of competing goals on self-care compliance among patients with Chronic Heart Failure

Failure to follow self-care recommendations for chronic heart failure (CHF) not only threatens patients’ lives and well-being, but is costly to the health care system. Most approaches to increasing patient compliance are based on the assumption that individuals will adhere w hen armed with information about “what” (to do) and “why” (they should do it). We argue that this approach misses the mark by failing to address the “so what?”, that is, the CHF and Non-CHF related goals and values that really matter to patients. The aims of this study are to 1) develop a clinic-friendly tool to assess patient goals and competing priorities, and 2) determine whether competing priorities predict patient compliance above and beyond level of patient know ledge. It is expected that findings will inform the design of future CHF self-management interventions and also help Sykes Assistance Services develop wellness-coaching programs for individuals in the workplace.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Leora Swartzman

Student:

Karen Zhang

Partner:

Sykes Assistance Services

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

Western University