The effectiveness of education on symptoms recognition in heart failure patients to manage self-care: a systematic review protocol

AIM: Heart failure is a chronic disease with a complex regimen treatment. Patients must have to enroll in a disease management program to engage in self-care. However, symptom recognition is a difficult step to manage by patients, as they tend to wait for the symptoms to disappear. The aim of this study is to verify if patients with heart failure can recognize early signs of the disease. METHOD: A systematic review will be carried out to analyze the effectiveness of patient education in detecting heart failure symptoms. RESULTS: The systematic review will provide data to understand if patient education on heart failure symptom recognition is effective on reducing hospital admissions. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with heart failure struggle daily in balancing self-care. If not taught about what symptoms to expect, patients will sit and wait at home, resulting in severe hospital admissions. Previous systematic reviews and meta-analysis focused on associations among symptoms in individuals with heart failure, or on a multicomponent Heart failure management programs, with several teaching topics. This protocol for a new review, which will focus on symptom monitoring by patients with heart failure, and the development of this skill positively interferes with self-care and avoids hospital readmissions.