School of Psychology, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia.
BMC Cardiovasc Disord. 2013 Aug 28;13:63. doi: 10.1186/1471-2261-13-63.
Patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) experience a number of debilitating symptoms, which impact on activities of daily living and result in poor quality of life. Prospective memory, which is defined as memory to carry out future intentions, has not been investigated in this group. However, emerging evidence suggests CHF patients have difficulties with cognitive processes related to prospective memory. Self-care, which partly relies on prospective memory, is essential in symptom management and preventing acute clinical deterioration. This study aims to measure prospective memory in CHF patients, and examine the relationship between prospective memory and CHF self-care.
METHODS/DESIGN: A comprehensive neuropsychological assessment will be conducted to assess a range of cognitive functions and psychopathology. The primary focus will be an assessment of prospective memory using a well-established behavioral measure; Virtual Week. Thirty CHF patients attending a nurse-led management program will be recruited from three hospital sites in Melbourne, Australia and their self-care behaviors will be assessed using the Self-care Chronic Heart Failure Index (SCHFI), a validated self-report tool. An additional 30 healthy controls, matched on age, gender, and IQ will be recruited from the general community.
This is a group comparison study that will provide an evaluation of the prospective memory abilities of CHF patients. The findings of this research will provide insight into whether prospective memory may be hindering patients' ability to perform adequate self-care.
慢性心力衰竭（CHF）患者会出现多种使人虚弱的症状，这些症状会影响日常生活活动，并导致生活质量下降。前瞻性记忆，即执行未来意图的记忆，尚未在该人群中进行研究。然而，新出现的证据表明，CHF 患者在与前瞻性记忆相关的认知过程方面存在困难。自我护理部分依赖于前瞻性记忆，对于症状管理和预防急性临床恶化至关重要。本研究旨在测量 CHF 患者的前瞻性记忆，并研究前瞻性记忆与 CHF 自我护理之间的关系。
方法/设计：将进行全面的神经心理学评估，以评估一系列认知功能和精神病理学。主要重点将是使用经过验证的行为测量方法；虚拟周，评估前瞻性记忆。将从澳大利亚墨尔本的三个医院招募 30 名参加护士主导的管理计划的 CHF 患者，并使用经过验证的自我报告工具，即自我护理慢性心力衰竭指数（SCHFI）评估他们的自我护理行为。将从普通社区招募 30 名年龄、性别和智商匹配的健康对照者。
这是一项群组比较研究，将评估 CHF 患者的前瞻性记忆能力。这项研究的结果将深入了解前瞻性记忆是否可能会阻碍患者进行充分自我护理的能力。
