Understanding Taiwanese family adaptation to chronic heart failure

Abstract

This hermeneutic phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of individuals and families adapting to living with chronic heart failure, using the Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response Model as the guiding theoretical framework. The report was based on the analyses of 17 interviews with either individuals or families from a medical center in a metropolitan city in Taiwan. The findings showed that chronic heart failure struck the family with ripple effects to multiple areas of family life, including the well-being of individual family members, family functioning and interactions, and the relationships between the family and its social networks and community. The processes of adaptation involved families' efforts to reduce or manage demands by utilizing their existing capabilities, to strengthen and expand resources (including improving family functioning patterns), and to change meanings that shaped how they responded to their situations. Many aspects of the experiences reported by these families in Taiwan were similar to what has been described in previous studies of family experiencing chronic heart failure in other countries. Nevertheless, the findings demonstrated that the influences of cultural or religious beliefs in family meanings played an important role in the process of family juggling the pile-up of demands with their capabilities. Implications for health care providers and future research are offered.