Patients with heart failure are required to comply with a medication regimen and dietary sodium restrictions. The objectives of this study were to determine the most frequently perceived benefits of and barriers to compliance with medication and dietary sodium restrictions and evaluate the relevancy of these scale items for testing in tailored intervention studies. Data were collected as part of two studies that evaluated the psychometric properties of two questionnaires. The most frequently identified benefit of medication compliance was decreasing the chance of being hospitalized, and the most commonly reported barrier was disruption of sleep. Patients were knowledgeable about the benefits of compliance with dietary sodium restrictions, and the poor taste of food on the low sodium diet was the most common barrier. Heart failure patients perceive benefits of and barriers to compliance with therapeutic regimens that are likely to be amenable to tailored interventions designed to enhance compliance.