Heart Failure Awareness Survey in a Turkish Population: HFAS-TR

OBJECTIVE
Heart failure is leading cause of death and the most common diagnosis leading to hospitalization. Its awareness is lower than other cardiovascular diseases, both in the general population and in patients with heart failure (HF). This study aimed to establish the present level of knowledge about HF in patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and mildy reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF) HF in Türkiye.

METHODS
This questionnaire based survey study is a multicenter, conducted in 34 centers from December 2021 to July 2022.We performed a survey which is consisted of two sets of ques-tions focusing on individual characteristics of the patient and HF-related knowledge.

RESULTS
The study included a total of 2307 outpatient HF patients, comprising 70.5% males and 29,5% females with a mean age of 64.58 ± 13 (56-74) years and mean body mass index value of 32.5 ± 10 kg/m2. HFrEF and HFmrEF were determined in 74,7% and 25.3% patients, respectively. Thirty percent of patients did not know that they had HF. While 28,7% of the pa-tients thought that they had enough information about HF, 71.3% thought that they did not have enough knowledge. 25.2% of the study population identified dyspnea, 22% identified tiredness and 25,4% identified leg oedema as the most common symptom of HF. The three typical symp-toms of HF were identified in 27.4% of patients.


CONCLUSION
We found the study population’s knowledge about HF symptoms and nature of the disease was poor. Educational and awareness activities are necessary to optimize outcomes and benefits.