The Severe Heart Failure Questionnaire: Italian translation and linguistic validation.

INTRODUCTION: The quality of life (QoL) is an important outcome indicator for heart failure management. As the use of a validate questionnaire in a different cultural context can affect data interpretation our main objective is the Italian translation and linguistic validation of the Severe Heart Failure Questionnaire (SHF) and its comparison with the MLHF (Minnesota Living with Heart Failure) Questionnaire. METHODS: The SHF and "The Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire" were translated. A consensus involving parallel back-translations was established among a group of cardiologists, psychologists and biostatisticians. SHF and MLHF were both administrated to a sample of 50 patients. RESULTS: The patients' median age was 63 years. Ace inhibitors therapy was administered in 88% of cases and betablockers in 56% of cases. Finally the Italian version of SHF correlates well with MLHF for all domains, except life satisfaction SHF domain. DISCUSSION: The Italian version of the SHF correlates well with MLHF for almost all domains and it represents a valid alternative for quality of life assessment in heart failure patients.

[The SCOOP II trial in heart failure]. / Lo studio SCOOP II (Scompenso nell'Ospedalizzazione Pubblica): proposta di un modello.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a health education intervention aimed at improving therapeutic compliance and quality of life of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). In this 1100 bed Community hospital 97% of patients with CHF admitted to the Internal Medicine Unit have a high rate of readmission, mortality and negative quality of life. METHODS: Two hundred patients (123 males, 77 females, mean age 75 years) were enrolled and randomized. CHF patients admitted to the Internal Medicine Unit were randomly assigned to usual care (n=100) or intervention group (n=100), which consisted of a nurse-guided education program, facilitated telephone communication and regularly scheduled follow-up visits with an internist. The primary endpoints were quality of life and quality of service improvement, and improved compliance with the heart failure guidelines. All patients were submitted to echocardiography. RESULTS: Ejection fraction is available for 87% of them. Baseline quality of life is similar in both groups. Final data will be available after April 2001.