The Impact of Motivational Interviewing on Self-care and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

Background Self-care is an integral component of successful chronic heart failure (HF) management. Structured educational programs have already been shown to be effective in improving self-care, but some patients show resistance and little motivation for change. Objective The objective of this study was to compare efficacy in improving self-care and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for an educational intervention based on motivational interviewing (MI) compared with a conventional educational intervention. Methods This experimental pretest-posttest study with an equivalent historical control group included 93 patients in the intervention group and 93 matched patients in the control group. Participants attended a first visit after HF hospitalization discharge and 6 to 7 follow-up visits during 6 months. The European Heart Failure Self-care Behavior scale and the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire were used to assess self-care and HRQoL, respectively. Data on mortality and hospital readmissions were collected as adverse events. Results Self-care improved significantly more in the MI-based intervention group than in the control group (P = .005). Although both self-care and HRQoL improved in both groups over time (P < .05), there was no significant between-group difference in terms of HRQoL improvement over time (P = .13). Conclusions Our findings suggest that MI delivered by MI-trained nurses is effective in significantly improving self-care by patients with HF. Nonetheless, further studies are required to evaluate the impact of MI on other outcomes, such as HRQoL and adverse clinical events.

Automated summary

Motivational interviewing (MI) based educational intervention significantly improves self-care in patients with heart failure (HF), but its impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is still uncertain.