HEart fAiluRe evaluaTion Questionnaire
Condition: Heart Failure; Heart Failure NYHA Class III; Heart Failure NYHA Class II; Heart Failure NYHA Class I; Heart Failure NYHA Class IV
MeSH terms: Heart Failure
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      The "four-point" questionnaire by Severo and his associates was weighted in 2011 in the
      Portuguese population and aims to characterize the severity of the symptoms of heart failure
      by providing a way to minimize the reliability of the NYHA classification. The questionnaire
      consists of four closed questions, three possible single-choice answers, coded 0, 1 or 2, and
      has been translated into Greek in accordance with the internationally-based methodology, with
      forward-backward translation.
    

Detailed description: 
      In clinical practice, the most commonly used classifications of the severity of CA⸱ are the
      New York Heart Association functional classification (NYHA), which is based on symptoms and
      exercise capacity11 and has been used in the majority of clinical trials combined with the
      fraction left ventricular ejection and ACC / AHA (American College of Cardiology Foundation /
      American Heart Association), which describes the disease according to structural lesions and
      symptoms.

      With NYHA calibration, patients can be classified into four classes (I, II, III, IV)
      according to conclusions drawn from the medical history and / or observations of their
      physical activity and in some cases from cardiac function measurements . An attempt has been
      made to increase the objectivity of the method through a more comprehensive assessment, which
      will also be based on clinical measurements from electrocardiograms, stress tests, x-rays,
      echocardiograms, etc. There is a very high variability among clinicians' ratings on
      classifying patients in classes based on the NYHA functional classification as the class is
      selected according to the physician's personal assessment of the patient's physical
      condition. This increases the subjectivity of the particular sorting system. Studies have
      shown that there is agreement on NYHA calibration between different doctors for the same
      patient, of 55%, which leads to the conclusion that the use of this scale as the endpoint in
      clinical research is questionable and inadequate.

      Patient self-assessments are more reliable with respect to the subjectivity of assessing the
      severity of symptoms. This is why maximizing the interest of the scientific community,
      clinicians and pharmaceutical companies in developing more subjective methods of measuring
      health status. 30% of all new drugs developed use patient-reported outcomes (PROs) as primary
      or intermediate endpoints.

      The different data collection methods and sampling techniques are methods and methodologies
      that allow for the reduction of the amount of data to be collected, considering data only as
      some elements of a subset of the cases under consideration. The questionnaire is a form that
      includes a series of structured questions, in which the respondent is asked to respond in
      writing and in a specific order. Questionnaires collect data asking people to answer exactly
      the same set of questions. They are usually used in a research strategy to collect
      descriptive and explanatory data about views, behaviors, features, attitudes, etc. The
      questionnaire is the means of communication between the researcher and the respondents,
      directly or indirectly, depending on the method of data collection. The structure of the
      questionnaire, due to its qualities, is the most critical and delicate task, crucial to the
      success of a statistical survey.
    

Intervention name(s): healthy volunteers
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): the questionnaire has been assessed by both groups, healthy and heart failure
Other intervention name(s): healthy vs heart failure
Observational model: Other
Time perspective: Prospective
Sampling method: Non-Probability Sample
Study population: 
        Heart failure patients vs Healthy matched controls