Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) patients have h/o hospital readmissions. Our aim to investigate the socioeconomic, behavioral, nutritional & dietary status of the CHF patients, who had experienced hospital readmission. This research was in two phases. In Phase-I, we interviewed 303 patients with CHF regarding demographic & socioeconomic status, dietary habits & nutritional assessments. In Phase-II, 40 patients with CHF were selected. Among them, 20 patients received HF education in the ‘Heart Failure Clinic’. They went through counseling about drug compliance, titration of the doses, diet chart and lifestyle modification. The other 20 HF patients didn’t experience any counseling. We compared the consequences of these two groups after 30 days & 90 days. In our Phase-I study, 76.57% patients with heart failure readmission were male and average age of our patient group was 57.48±14.02 (Mean ± SD). Patients with lower income group (58.75%) experienced more HF readmission. Salt and water restrictions aren’t well maintained at home. On balance salt consumption at home was as high as 7.75 ± 1.5 gm/ day (Mean ± SD) and fluid intake was 2 ± 0.5 Lt/day (Mean ± SD). Lack of protein rich food in their diet. Average protein intake was only 50.50 gm/day. Major source of their calorie intake was CHO (319.87 g/day). Iron deficiency anaemia was observed in 62% patients. In our Phase-II experimental study, initially there wasn’t any significant difference in two groups. But after 90 days of regular monthly follow up, the patients who got HF education showed significant clinical improvement & reduce hospital readmission in contrast to the other group. Despite giving optimum medical therapy, still the readmission rates for the CHF patients are increasing day by day. With proper medical adherence, healthy nutritional habit, dietary pattern and lifestyle may reduce hospital readmissions of CHF patients and these measures may also improve their quality of life.

Jahanara Arzu completed her MD (Cardiology) in 2009. She is serving as a professor, in the cardiology department at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Bangladesh. Her book was published by Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany in 2012. She has around 67 publications including indexed journals. She is an associate editor of ‘University Heart Journal’, BSMMU. She is running various research projects. Now she is a PhD fellow in the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her interest is in teaching & guiding the MD residents in BSMMU. She is the member secretary, ‘Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic’, BSMMU since 2015. She is an active faculty in the ‘Heart Failure Division’, BSMMU.