Living with breathlessness in chronic heart failure - a qualitative study
2017
Aims
To explore how patients with CHF describe their experiences of breathlessness, the pattern of their breathlessness, how daily life is affected and how they adjust to and manage these symptoms.
Background
Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) is a highly prevalent syndrome often with poor outcomes and in a patient group who are predominately elderly. Breathlessness is the main symptom experienced by patients and often relates to decompensation and hospitalisation, yet subtle changes described by patients are often not discussed with health care professionals.
Design
A descriptive qualitative design.
Participants: Twenty-five participants with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HF-REF) from a tertiary referral centre in England
Methods
Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted and data was analysed through thematic analysis.
Findings
All participants reported experiencing breathlessness daily. Four sub-themes were identified in their accounts: nature of breathlessness, emotional impact of breathlessness, impact of breathlessness on daily life and managing breathlessness.
Conclusion
Participants were able to give vivid descriptions of breathlessness and the way it affected their lives.
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