fa بهداشت محیط زیست Environmental Health پژوهشي Original Article <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background and objectives: </strong>The current study aimed at considering the performance, attitude and awareness level of patients affected by congestive heart failure who were hospitalized in Zahedan hospitals with regard to the self-care behaviors and factors related to it.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Method</strong>: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 140 patients with congestive heart failure who were hospitalized in various hospitals during 2015. The required data was collected through interview and a designed questionnaire. In order to analyze the data, SPSS Software, version 15, was used through chi-square test, t-test, and ANOVA test.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Findings</strong>: There was a direct correlation between patients&rsquo; awareness level and attitude (p˂ 0.001 and r=0.459), and behavior (p˂ 0.001 and r=0.345). In addition, a direct correlation was observed between patients&rsquo; attitude and their behavior (p= 0.003 and r=0.452). However, there was a reverse correlation between patients&rsquo; age and their awareness level (p= 0.003 and r= -0.253), and their attitude (p˂ 0.03 and r= -0.181). By performing an ANOVA test, it was revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between educational level and awareness (p= 0.001), and patients&rsquo; attitude (p= 0.006). The average number of hospitalization was 3.31%, the most important reasons for hospitalization was shortness of breath (dyspnea) (74%), and the most prevalent background diseases was hypertension (74.3%).</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion</strong>: It is necessary to pay enough attention to patients&rsquo; needs in this regard, and provide suitable educational programs which improve the patients&rsquo; awareness level and positive attitude; finally, these programs can promote self-care behaviors in patients.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"></p> Self-care behavior, Congestive heart failure, Zahedan 25 31 http://jhs.mazums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-441-9&slc_lang=fa&sid=1 Maryam Seraji serajimaryam@gmail.com. 10031947532846004555 10031947532846004555 Yes Faculty of health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Fateme Rakhshani 10031947532846004556 10031947532846004556 No Faculty of Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran