Communication needs regarding heart failure trajectory and palliative care between patients and healthcare providers: A cross-sectional study

Jin-Sun Park, Kyoung-Woo Seo, Jung Eun Lee, Kyoung-Hwa Kim, Jeong-Ah Ahn 

Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is a chronic condition with an unpredictable trajectory, making effective communication between patients and healthcare providers crucial for optimizing outcomes. This study aims to investigate and compare the communication needs regarding HF trajectory.

Introduction

The pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease is diverse, and even after proper initial treatment, most patients progress from chronic heart disease to heart failure (HF), which inflicts considerable morbidity and mortality [1]. HF remains a chronic disease with steadily increasing burdens of hospitalization and healthcare costs [2].

Materials and methods

Study design

The present investigation was a cross-sectional, descriptive, and exploratory study.

Results

Characteristics of participants

Table 1 presents the characteristics of the participants. The mean age of 100 patients with HF was 64.62 years, with 66.0% being men. Among the patients, 65.0% were married, 74.0% had a high school education or below, and 57.0% were currently unemployed

Discussion

This study provides an in-depth understanding of the communication needs between patients and healthcare providers regarding HF trajectory and palliative care. As one of the first attempts to compare aspects of communication between patients and healthcare providers regarding HF, the findings provide important insights.

Conclusions

This study highlighted significant differences in communication needs between patients with HF and healthcare providers. Patients prioritized device-related communication, whereas healthcare providers focused more on HF in daily life, with both groups ranking end-of-life communication as the lowest priority.

Citation: Park J-S, Seo K-W, Lee JE, Kim K-H, Ahn J-A (2025) Communication needs regarding heart failure trajectory and palliative care between patients and healthcare providers: A cross-sectional study. PLoS ONE 20(1): e0317417. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317417

Editor: Mariusz Duplaga, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w Krakowie Biblioteka Jagiellonska, POLAND

Received: August 22, 2024; Accepted: December 27, 2024; Published: January 13, 2025

Copyright: © 2025 Park et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Data cannot be shared publicly because of the confidentiality and privacy safeguards outlined in the approved protocol. However, data can be made available from the Ajou University Institutional Review Board (contact via +82-31-219-7064) upon reasonable request, in accordance with the ethical approval guidelines.

Funding: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (NRF-2022R1F1A1075049). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

 

 

Source: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0317417#abstract0