Abstract:
The purpose of this descriptive research was to examine the relationships between gender, capacity for Activities Daily Life (The New York Heart Association), sleep quality, depression, social support and fatigue in elderly patients with heart failure. The sample group comprised 140 elderly patients with heart failure who received out-patient services at the heart disease clinics 0f 3 tertiary care hospitals, i.e. Somdejprapinklao Hospital, Rajavithi Hospital and Police General Hospital, and were selected stratified random sampling. The instrumentation employed in data collection included the Demographic Data Questionnaire for Elderly Patients with Heart Failure, the Piper Fatigue Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS) and the Social Support Questionnaire. The content validity of the Piper Fatigue Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Social Support. Questionnaires was examined by a panel of experts and validity was obtained by calculating Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient at .88, .71 and .80 respectively. Data were analyzed by basic statistics of percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation, Pearson’s product moment coefficient and Eta coefficient where by the level of statistical significance was set level at .05. The research findings can be summarized as follows: 1. The elderly patients with heart failure had a moderate degree of fatigue (mean = 4.81, SD = 1.66). 2. Gender was related to fatigue in elderly patients with heart failure with not statistical significance (Eta = .210). 3. Level of capacity for Activities Daily Living was significantly correlated with fatigue (Eta = .377, p < .05). 4. Poor sleep quality was moderately and positively correlated with fatigue in elderly with heart failure with statistical significance at .05 (r = .358, p = .000), depression was highly and positively correlated with fatigue in elderly with heart failure with statistical significance at .05 (r =.557, p =.000) and social support was moderately and negatively correlated with fatigue in elderly with heart failure with statistical significance at .05 (r = -.355, p = .000).