Autonomous motivation linked with heart failure self-care over three months

In a three-month longitudinal study of people with heart failure, higher autonomous motivation at baseline was associated with higher self-care at baseline and with higher self-care at follow-up through two indirect pathways: higher self-care at the first assessment and higher autonomous motivation at the second assessment. Among the motivation types examined, autonomous motivation showed the clearest statistically significant relationships with self-care over time.

The study included 101 participants, 60 of them female, who completed a baseline questionnaire, designated Time 1. Three months later, 81 participants, 46 of them female, completed the follow-up questionnaire, designated Time 2. Researchers used Self-Determination Theory as the framework for examining whether different forms of motivation were associated with self-care at either assessment. The analysis distinguished autonomous motivation, controlled motivation and amotivation.

At Time 1, higher autonomous motivation was significantly associated with higher reported self-care. At Time 2, baseline autonomous motivation was indirectly associated with higher self-care through two pathways. The first was higher self-care already reported at Time 1, while the second was higher autonomous motivation at Time 2. These were associations identified by the longitudinal analysis; the results do not establish that motivation caused the differences in self-care or that changing motivation would necessarily improve subsequent self-care.

Controlled motivation and amotivation did not show statistically significant direct or indirect associations with self-care in the reported analysis. That finding should not be interpreted as proof that these forms of motivation are unrelated to heart failure self-care. The study followed one group over only two assessment points, and the number of participants completing follow-up was smaller than the number completing the baseline questionnaire. Its scope therefore does not establish the absence of longer-term relationships or generalize automatically to all people with heart failure.

Exploratory analyses indicated that higher autonomous motivation at Time 1 was associated with lower amotivation at Time 2. The authors also characterized the motivation types as broadly stable over the study period, highlighting autonomous motivation as potentially important in understanding self-care across the three-month interval. The work is observational rather than a test of an intervention, so it does not show that programs designed to increase autonomous motivation improve self-care or clinical outcomes. Instead, it identifies a relationship that may merit attention in the design and evaluation of support for long-term heart failure management.

Subject of Research: Associations between motivation types and self-care among people with heart failure over three months

Article Title: Longitudinal relationships between motivation types and heart failure self-care

Article References: Saeedian, Y., Jansons, P., Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M., & Maddison, R. (2026). Longitudinal relationships between motivation types and heart failure self-care. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05337-0

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05337-0

Keywords: heart failure, self-care, autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, amotivation, Self-Determination Theory, longitudinal study, health psychology, patient behavior, Longitudinal, relationships, between