Monitoring of body weight for heart failure patients: variability of weight and self-reporting

摘要

Monitoring of patients' weight has an important role in medical care. It has particular importance for the home management of patients with heart failure. The monitoring of daily weights plays a critical role in keeping their disease under control. In this study we explore the accuracy, inherent normal variability, and clinically significant changes in weight by observing daily weights in a sample of 44 patients with heart failure. Our analysis shows that self-reported weights are fairly reliable for the purposes of being able to detect early complications due to the heart failure disease process.