Fear of physical activity in patients with heart failure and associations with anxiety scores and self-reported physical activity

Physical activity (PA) is recommended for patients with stable chronic heart failure, but adherence to such recommendations is generally low. We used the recently developed “Fear of Activity in Situations - Heart Failure” questionnaire (Hoffmann et al., 2018) to examine fear of PA along with heart-focused fear and trait anxiety in a multi-site study of 185 outpatients with chronic heart failure. Only fear of PA was associated with indicators of disease severity, self-reported avoidance of PA and exercise behavior. In addition, our findings suggest that attention towards and being distressed by heart failure symptoms play a central role in fear of PA, particularly in patients with a vigilant coping style who are used to direct their attention towards health threats.