Article The influence of gender and race on heart failure self-care Lucinda J Graven , Laurie Abbott, Sabrina L Dickey and Glenna Schluck Abstract Objectives: To explore gender and racial differences in heart failure (HF) self-care processes and examine whether gender and race predict HF self-care. Methods: A secondary analysis of baseline data (n ¼ 107) from a longitudinal HF study (54.2% males; 56% non-Caucasians) was conducted. The self-care of heart failure index was used to measure self-care maintenance, management, and confidence. Descriptive statistics and univariate analyses examined gender and racial differences in HF self-care outcomes. Multiple linear regression examined whether gender and race predicted HF self-care maintenance, management, and confidence. Results: Univariate analyses indicated that Caucasians reported significantly better self-care maintenance (p ¼ 0.042), while non-Caucasians reported significantly better self-care manage- ment (p ¼ 0.003). Males had significantly higher self-care confidence scores versus women (p ¼ 0.017). Multiple regression analysis indicated Caucasian race predicted significantly worse self-care management (b ¼11.188; p ¼ 0.006) versus non-Caucasian, while male gender pre- dicted significantly higher self-care confidence scores (b ¼ 7.592; p ¼ 0.010) versus female gender. Gender nor race significantly predicted self-care maintenance. Discussion: Although gender and race may influence HF self-care, other factors may be more important. More research is needed to identify individual factors that contribute to HF self-care to improve education and intervention. Keywords Heart failure, gender, race, self-care Received 10 July 2018; accepted 24 February 2019 Introduction Despite current pharmacological treatment and management efforts, 1 heart failure (HF) remains a significant global health Florida State University College of Nursing, Tallahassee, FL, USA Corresponding author: Lucinda J Graven, Florida State University College of Nursing, 98 Varsity Way, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4310, USA. Email: lgraven@nursing.fsu.edu Chronic Illness 0(0) 1–12 ! The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1742395319843163 journals.sagepub.com/home/chi