Effects of Telenursing-Based Family Centered Empowerment on the Fatigue and Sexual Satisfaction of Heart Failure Patients and Their Partners: A Randomized Controled Trial

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a chronic and progressive disease with extensive physical and psychological sequelae that affects not only patients but also their partners’ quality of life (QoL). This study aimed to determine the effects of telenursing-based family-centered empowerment (TFE) on the level of fatigue and sexual satisfaction of HF patients and their partners. Materials and Methods: This randomized clinical trial (RCT) was performed between February and June 2025 on a total of 100 participants (50 patients and 50 partners). The participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received family-centered empowerment (FE) training via the WhatsApp platform for six weeks, followed by two-week telephone follow-up. However, the control group received only routine care. Data were collected via the Smets’ Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI) and Hudson’s Index of Sexual Satisfaction (ISS) before and eight weeks after the intervention and analyzed via appropriate statistical tests in SPSS version 25. Findings: The findings revealed that implementing the TFE intervention caused patients in the experimental group to experience a significant reduction in physical and mental fatigue and reduced activity components (P < 0.05). For the sexual satisfaction variable, only the two "quality of sexual life" and "sexual attitude" components significantly differed in the inter and intragroup analyses. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that TFE is an effective approach for reducing fatigue in HF patients, improving the sexual satisfaction level of their partners, and can be used as part of care and rehabilitation programs for these patients and their partners. Trial registration: This study was prospectively registered in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT) on January 28, 2025, under the registration number IRCT20241231064226N1. https://www.irct.ir/trial/64226