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Background: Patients with heart failure (HF) must manage both a demanding treatment regimen and self-care, which may lead to a burden of treatment. The purpose of this study was to assess the levels of burdens from treatment and self-care and its associations with psychological distress and health-related quality of life., Methods: In this cross-sectional study we collected self-report data from 125 patients diagnosed with HF, New York Heart Association classification II and III, who received care in a nurse-led HF outpatient clinic. Clinical variables were collected from the medical records. Data analyses comprised descriptive statistics and partial correlations., Results: The participants mean age was 67 (±9.2), most were male (74,4%) and the majority had reduced ejection fraction (EF 35.4 ± 10.8). The highest mean burden scores emerged for insufficient medical information (34.65, range 0-86), difficulty with health care service (34.57, range 0-81), and physical and mental fatigue (34.12, range 0-90). Significant positive associations were observed between physical and mental fatigue from self-care, role and social activity limitation, and psychological distress, and health-related QoL., Conclusion: Burden of treatment is an important aspect of HF treatment as it contributes to valuable knowledge on patient workload. This study emphasizes the need to simplify and tailor the treatment regimens to alleviate the burden., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aims and Objectives: To explore chronic heart failure patients' perceptions of the burden related to treatment and self-care., Background: Living with chronic heart failure entails following a demanding treatment regimen, with daily self-care, which could make patients vulnerable to experiencing treatment burden. Burden of treatment is defined as the "work" the healthcare system passes on to the patients with respect to self-care at home, and the impact this has on well-being and quality of life. However, the burden of treatment is an emergent framework, and further research exploring burden among heart failure patients is required., Design: Qualitative study employing semi-structured interviews and content analysis. The study complied with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ)., Methods: A sample of 17 heart failure patients recruited from an outpatient clinic in Norway. Interview transcripts were coded in Nvivo 11 and analysed using Malterud's systematic text condensation., Results: Two main themes "emotional challenge" and "troublesome self-care" emerged from the analysis. The first theme contained the following subthemes: "a new life situation," "monitoring body signals," "difficult transitions" and "feelings of guilt." The second theme consisted of the subthemes "poor care coordination," "lack of information and education" and "troublesome medication.", Conclusion: Heart failure treatment constitutes challenges related both to self-care and to emotional burden. The latter not previously clearly articulated in the concept of burden of treatment. Many patients are struggling emotionally, and this affects their self-care ability in addition to affecting their well-being and quality of life., Relevance to Clinical Practice: Nurses are in a strategic position to play a pivotal role in identifying and responding to the emotional burden of treatment in heart failure patients, furthermore to guide and support in discharge planning and in outpatient setting to reduce the patients' emotional distress and fear of failing., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)