[Adherence of patients with heart failure to treatment in a teaching hospital].

Non-compliance in heart failure (HF) patients is one of the factors leading to hospital readmissions. Under this perspective, a study was carried out in a university hospital in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil to describe the compliance with pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments of patients admitted with decompensated HF, relating the compliance to the number of hospital admissions and readmissions during a years period. The pharmacological compliance was measured through Morisky scale and the non-pharmacological compliance was measured through a previously validated questionnaire. The sample was composed of 252 patients, median age 63 +/- 13, 151 (60%) male. For the pharmacological compliance, 118 (47%) patients demonstrated high compliance, and 45 (18%) adhered to non-pharmacological treatment. There was no relation found between treatment compliance (pharmacological or non-pharmacological) and readmissions. Patients who had been treated for HF, had knowledge about non-pharmacological care and were able to identify congestion symptoms demonstrated high compliance.