The Heart of Advanced Heart Failure Caregivers: Impact of Social Support on Subjective Burden

Abstract

Informal caregivers often experience a perceived lack of social support, leading to a greater sense of subjective burden. Caregivers of those living with advanced heart failure are faced with many competing responsibilities throughout the course of an unpredictable illness trajectory. In comparison to caregivers of those living with illnesses such as cancer or dementia, there is little research available on the needs of advanced heart failure caregivers. This project aimed to address the social support needs of advanced heart failure caregivers to help mitigate caregiver burden and address knowledge gaps. Through community-based participatory research, a monthly topic-facilitated caregiver support group was established through the HeartBrothers Foundation. Perceived social support and social conflict outcomes were measured using the Perceived Social Support for Caregiving (PSSC) and Social Conflict (SC) scales through pre- and post-surveys conducted at the start of the intervention and at six months. The Mann-Whitney U test for unpaired samples was used to compare the pre- and post-survey results. The results of this study showed an improvement in perceived social support among participants after six months of online monthly facilitated support groups. These results provided a greater understanding of interventions that may help reduce caregiver burden by providing a means of social support. Caregiver feedback at the end of the six-month study period expressed a desire to sustain the monthly support groups.

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Nursing

Subject Area

Nursing; Health sciences; Medicine

Department

Nursing (NUR)

First Advisor

Stager, Sharon

Second Advisor

Sylvia, Lynne

Third Advisor

Dunn, Dorothy J.

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

D.N.P.

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