Reducing Anxiety among Heart Failure Patients by Doing the Six-Minute Walk

Abstract

Heart failure has been one of the emerging diseases in terms of prevalence, morbidity, and mortality, which
cause a physical and psychological impact on society. Anxiety was found as the most common issue among
them. Inadequate anxiety management leads to the treatment compliance, aggravate functional status,
prolonge hospitalization and increase mortality rate, thus effective management is essential. The present
study was to investigate the impact of a safety exercise of the six-minute walk in reducing anxiety level
among heart failure patients. A quasi-experimental study was performed at a cardiovascular outpatient of
the acute care setting in Indonesia. The anxiety level of respondents was measured by using the Zung
Self-rating Anxiety Scale. A descriptive and paired t-test was performed for data analysis. Fifteen heart
failure outpatients enrolled in the study, most were male with the maximum age of 78 years. More than
half of respondents experienced anxiety during pre-test in the first week of this program, then their anxiety
level reduced after a moth implementation of the six-minute walk. This study provides baseline information
reflecting the effectiveness of the six-minute walk in reducing anxiety level among heart failure patients.