Implications for practice and research

• Healthcare practitioners should be aware that many patients with heart failure (HF) do not fully recognise the link between weight gain and HF decompensation.

• Self-care confidence has been found to influence self-care behaviours (including daily weighing in HF) much more than cognition, so future studies should determine whether interventions focused on self-care confidence can also improve patients’ ability to manage weight gain.

Context

HF has a prevalence between 0.5% and 2% in the general population and is associated with poor quality of life, increased hospitalisations and high care costs.1 To counteract the impact of HF, patients need to perform self-care, including daily weighing, as recommended by international guidelines.1 Daily weighing allows for detection of fluid retention that can cause HF decompensation. When the patient has a weight gain ≥2 kg …