Abstract

Epidemiological aspects of the management of heart failure patients seen in cardiological consultation at the Niamey National Hospital

Author(s): Idrissa Hama, Toure Ali Ibrahim, Bako Harouna, Habibou Harouna, Tinni Abdou Roukaya

Introduction: Heart failure is defined as a structural or functional abnormality of the heart resulting in an inability to supply the tissues with oxygen at a rate in line with their needs.
Objective: Contribute to a better understanding of the epidemiological aspects of the management of patients with heart failure.
Methodology: This is a prospective and cross-sectional study conducted over a period of 6 months.
Results: Thus our sample consisted of 300 cases. The female sex predominated with 66.5%, the average age was 56.9 ± 13.7 with extremes ranging from 19 years to 98 years. Housewives were the most represented at 43.7%. High blood pressure and sedentary lifestyle were the main FDRs found in patients in 95% followed by obesity in 22.3%. In 61.3% of cases patients know they have heart disease but do not know the type. Unusual shortness of breath on exertion was the main sign that made patients consult with 67.7%. Only 2% weighed themselves regularly. All of our patients (99%) knew the sodium restriction recommendation and more than half (58.3%) had suitable for low sodium diet. Only 23.2% of our patients drank less than 1.5 L per day. 29.7% of our patients did not practice any physical activity. Regarding the treatment, diuretics were the most used as specific treatment 64.3% and for non-specific treatment platelet aggregation
inhibitors in 12.3% of cases.
Conclusion: Our study has highlighted educational gaps in the heart failure population. Further studies could help to initiate a therapeutic education approach for patients to finally improve their quality of life and morbidity and mortality.