Background: Individual qualitative studies provide varied reasons for why heart failure patients do not engage in self-care, yet articles that aggregated primary studies on the subject have methodological weaknesses that justified the execution of a qualitative meta-summary.
Aim: The aim of this study is to integrate the findings of qualitative studies pertaining to barriers and facilitators to self-care using meta-summary techniques.
Methods: Qualitative meta-summary techniques by Sandelowski and Barroso were used to combine the findings of qualitative studies. Meta-summary techniques include: (1) extraction of relevant statements of findings from each report; (2) reduction of these statements into abstracted findings and (3) calculation of effect sizes. Databases were searched systematically for qualitative studies published between January 2010 and July 2015. Out of 2264 papers identified, 31 reports based on the accounts of 814 patients were included in the meta-summary.
Results: A total of 37 statements of findings provided a comprehensive inventory of findings across all reports. Out of these statements of findings, 21 were classified as barriers, 13 as facilitators and three were classed as both barriers and facilitators. The main themes relating to barriers and facilitators to self-care were: beliefs, benefits of self-care, comorbidities, financial constraints, symptom recognition, ethnic background, inconsistent self-care, insufficient information, positive and negative emotions, organizational context, past experiences, physical environment, self-initiative, self-care adverse effects, social context and personal preferences.
Conclusion: Based on the meta-findings identified in this study, future intervention development could address these barriers and facilitators in order to further enhance self-care abilities in heart failure patients.
Keywords: Meta-summary; barriers; facilitators; heart failure; research integration; self-care.