Cardiology
META ANALYSIS
● Meta-analysis
Study explores how heart failure patients and caregivers cope together and need support
Frontiers in Medicine
Published April 1, 2026
Researchers wanted to understand the shared experience of living with chronic heart failure. They looked at 16 existing qualitative studies that interviewed patients and their informal caregivers, like family members. The goal was to learn about the challenges they face together and what kind of support they feel they need.
The analysis found four main themes. First, patients and caregivers often have different views on the illness and care. Second, both can feel emotionally and mentally drained. Third, the strain can create tension in family closeness. Finally, there is a strong need for various types of support to help rebuild a sense of purpose and manage the disease as a team.
This study did not report any safety concerns because it was about gathering experiences, not testing a treatment. The main reason to be careful is that this research only describes feelings and perceptions. It does not provide numbers on how well any specific support program works. Readers should see this as a helpful map of the challenges faced by these families, which can guide future research into creating better support systems.
View Original Abstract ↓
ObjectivesTo systematically evaluate the experiences of chronic heart failure patients and their informal caregivers in jointly managing the disease, clarify their support needs, and provide evidence for developing targeted interventions.DesignA qualitative meta-synthesis.MethodsWe systematically searched PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP for qualitative studies examining the dyadic coping experiences of patients with chronic heart failure and their caregivers. The quality of the literature was evaluated according to the JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research, and the included literature was integrated and analyzed using the pooled integration approach.ResultsA total of 16 studies were included. 55 findings were aggregated into 13 categories and further synthesized into 4 overarching themes: divergent perspectives on illness and care; psychosocial resource depletion; disruptions in family intimacy; and the need for multidimensional support to reconstruct personal meaning.ConclusionsHealthcare professionals should pay close attention to differences in thinking, the degree of depletion of psychological resources, the tension in family intimacy, and supportive needs during the dyadic coping process between patients with chronic heart failure and their caregivers. Based on this, individualized interventions can be developed, leveraging digital technologies and platforms to enrich intervention formats and content, thereby enhancing collaborative disease management between both parties.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420251243342, CRD 420251243342.
