Study On The Relationship Between Health Literacy Caregiving Burden And Quality Of Life Of Primary Caregivers Of Patients With Heart Failure

Objectives1.To understand the current situation of health literacy,caregiving burden and quality of life of caregivers of patients with HF through a survey;and to explore the factors influencing the quality of life of caregivers of patients with HF.2.To explore the predictive role of independent variables such as health literacy and caregiving burden on quality of life of caregivers of patients with HF by constructing a structural equation model,and to analyze the mediating role of caregiving burden between health literacy and quality of life of caregivers.MethodsA convenience sampling method was used to select 410 primary caregivers of patients with HF who were hospitalized between February and November 2022 in the cardiovascular medicine departments of two general tertiary hospitals in Guangyuan City,Sichuan Province.The general information questionnaire,anxiety and depression scale,Social Support Scale,Chinese version of the Heart Failure-Specific Health Literacy Scale,Zarit Caregiving Burden Scale,and Family Caregiver-Specific Quality of Life Scale were used for the study.The influencing factors of the quality of life of HF caregivers were analyzed by t-test,ANOVA,Krusakal-Wallis H-test in non-parametric test,Pearson correlation analysis and multiple stepwise regression analysis.Structural equation modeling was constructed using AMOS 21.0 to analyze the pathway relationship between the three effects.Results1.The total mean score of quality of life for caregivers of patients with HF was(49.30±9.64),with scores of(11.99±3.37),(10.62±4.07),(12.97±3.40),and(13.67±2.67)for the four physical,psychological,social,and spiritual dimensions,respectively.2.In multiple linear regression analysis,presence or absence of a co-caregiver,relationship quality,caregiver’s depression level,caregiver’s social support,patient’s cardiac function rating,number of patient’s comorbidities,caregiver’s health literacy and caregiving burden were the main influencing factors on the quality of life of caregivers of patients with HF(adjusted R~2=0.695,F=59.853,P<0.001).3.The results of structural equation modeling showed that the direct effect of health literacy of caregivers of patients with HF on quality of life was 0.419(P<0.001);caregiving burden of caregivers of patients with HF had a negative predictive effect on quality of life(P<0.001),and the total indirect effect was 0.267 accounting for 39.04%of the total effect.Conclusions1.The overall quality of life of primary caregivers of patients with HF was at a low to moderate level,with many caregivers feeling varying degrees of caregiving burden and varying levels of caregiver health literacy.2.The presence of a co-caregiver,relationship quality,caregiver’s depression level,caregiver’s social support,patient’s cardiac function rating,number of patient comorbidities,caregiver’s health literacy,and caregiver’s caregiving burden were the main influencing factors on the quality of life of caregivers of patients with HF.3.Caregiver’s health literacy of patients with HF could have a direct effect on quality of life.Caregiving burden is mediating variable in the relationship between caregiver’s health literacy and quality of life,so medical professionals can actively improve the quality of life of caregivers by developing various targeted and comprehensive intervention programs from the perspective of these predictors.