Perceived Stress, Self Efficacy and Quality of Life in Patients with Heart Failure: A Structural Equation Model

Background: The high prevalence and mortality of heart failure is associated with reduced quality of life. The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between self-efficacy and perceived stress with quality of life in patients with heart failure. Methods: Participants were 298 patients referred to the cardiac unit of Farabi Tamin Ejtemaiy hospital in Mashhad. They completed three questionnaires. They were evaluated with the Minnesota living with heart failure questionnaire MLHFQ, 21 items (Rector 1984), selfefficacy (10 items, Schwarzer et al., 1982), and perceived stress questionnaire (14 items, Cohen et al., 1983). Data were analyzed by SPSS and LIZREL software. Results: The findings revealed that the quality of life of patients with heart failure is affected by perceived stress and self-efficacy. Therefore, perceived stress hurts the quality of life. Self-efficacy has also been able to mediate the relationship between perceived stress and quality of life, so that its path coefficient was equal to -0.36. Evaluation of the model with multiple indices RMSEA (0.082) and GFI (0.92) showed that the proposed model fits the data. Conclusions: Due to the fact, perceived stress conversely and also through self-efficacy can improve the quality of life of patients with heart failure.