Agreement between heart failure patients and their primary caregivers on symptom assessment

Background: To decrease the readmission rate of heart failure [HF] patients, patients and their caregivers [CGs] should participate in symptoms assessment. This study aimed to assess the agreement between HF patients and their CGs on symptoms assessment

Methods: Using a correlational design, 100 HF patients with their CGs [100 dyads] were recruited from Department of Cardiology, Iranshahr, during August-December 2014. Data were collected using modified Heart Failure Symptom Survey [HFSS].Pearson and intra-class correlation coefficients [ICC] were used to analyze the degree of agreement within HF dyads, using SPSS16. The level of significance was set at 0.05

Results: The most frequent and severe symptom assessed equally by partners was shortness of breath [SOB]. Dyads had a good agreement on assessment of extremity swelling [r=0.87, P

Conclusion: Most of the HF dyad members did not agree with each other on the assessment of symptoms. Knowledge, skills and ability of each dyad in HF symptoms assessment should be included in the patients' discharge planning and nurses must modify their misunderstanding or inability

Correlation of revised trauma score with mortality rate of traumatic patients within the first 24 hours of hospitalization

Trauma is a major health problem throughout the world, leading to death and disability especially in the first four decades of victims' life. In Iran also, accident-related death has a critical situation with an increasing rate of 10-15% per year. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between revised trauma score and mortality rate of traumatic patients within the first 24 h of hospitalization. A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the association between revised trauma score and the mortality rate of traumatic patients within the first 24 h of hospitalization on 240 traumatic patients admitted to Khatam al-Anbia hospital. The obtained data were analyzed with SPSS software-15, using logistic regression, chi-square, and descriptive statistics. Seventy four point tow percent of patients were referred due to accident, of which 38.3% had multiple traumas. Fifty point eight percent of traumatic patients died within the first 24 h of hospitalization. The minimum and maximum revised trauma score in injured patients were 7 and 12, respectively. Also, 80% of mortality was seen in victims with a score of 9-10. Both the chi[2] test and logistic regression showed a significant relationship between the first revised trauma score and the mortality rate of traumatic patients within the first 24 h of hospitalization [p=0.001]. The results of this study indicate that the revised trauma score can be used as a tool to predict the mortality rate of traumatic patients