BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Chronic diseases, such as heart failure, have an adverse impact on the life of the patients and their families. Responsibilities of patient care may give rise to tension and anxiety, affecting the mental and physical health of caregivers. Educational interventions have been shown to enhance the quality of care, as well as the mental and physical health of patient caregivers. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a designated educational intervention on the improvement of quality of life in caregivers of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).

METHODS: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 120 family caregivers of CHF patients admitted to the Cardiac Care Unit of Ghaem Hospital of Mashhad, Iran in 2014. Participants were selected via available sampling and randomly allocated to two groups of intervention and control. Designated educational program consisted of face-to-face interviews with the participants in the intervention group, while control subjects only received routine care and training. Data were collected using the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) to assess the quality of life in both groups before and one month after the intervention (IRCT: 2014072118552N1).

FINDINGS: In this study, no statistically significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of demographic characteristics and eight domains of SF-36 at the beginning of the study. One month after the designated educational intervention, total mean score of quality of life was 81.82±2.75 in the intervention group and 75.97±4.36 in the control group, which had a statistically significant increase compared to before the intervention (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, implementation of designated educational programs could improve the quality of life of the caregivers of CHF patients.