Center for Biobehavioral Research in Self-Management of Cardiopulmonary Disease

Background: Heart failure (HF) affects 5 million people in the US and is the most common cause of hospitalization in elderly adults. One-third of patients hospitalized with HF have major depression. Patients with depressive symptoms are twice as likely to die or be rehospitalized compared to patients without symptoms of depression. Results from a previous pilot study indicate that a brief, nurse-delivered Cognitive Therapy (CT) . intervention may improve 3-month cardiac survival among depressed hospitalized HF patients compared to nondepressed HF patients who received usual care. Purpose: To evaluate the effects of the intervention on cardiac event-free survival, depressive symptoms, health-related quality of life, and salivary cortisol in hospitalized patients with HF. A secondary purpose of this study is to compare levels of BNP, CRP and IL-6 at baseline between patients with and without depressive symptoms, and determine whether the salivary measures of BNP, CRP, and IL-6 are correlated with serum measurement of these biomarkers The purpose of this proposal is to establish a Center for Biobehavioral Research in Self-Management of Cariopulmonary Disease at the Univ of Kentucky College of Nursing to provide the support needed to promote research programs that focus on cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases which are major chronic illnesses requiring life-long self management. The purpose of the Center is to: 1) develop the research infrastructure at the UKCON to promote and support research on processes, interventions, and self-management outcomes; 2) expand the quality and quantity of self-management research projects using biobehavioral methods by centralizing methodological resources; 3) expand the number of nurse investigators doing interdisciplinary self-management research by supporting interdisciplinary exchange and linkages; 4) contribute to the scientific foundation for self-management by promotion and dissemination of systematic investigation of self-management processes, interventions, and outcomes; 5) plan for and develop sustainability of interdisciplinary self-management research programs by building active and growing partnerships inside and outside the University of Kentucky.